Treatment of female inmate ‘outrageous and barbaric,’ lawyer tells coroner’s hearing

Ashley Smith, pictured in an undated photo, took her own life in a federal institution on October 19, 2007.

Diana Zlomislic Staff Reporter

The story of Ashley Smith is “the most outrageous and barbaric example of the mistreatment of a mentally ill person this country has ever witnessed,” her family’s lawyer told a coroner’s court on Monday.

“It took a long time to torture Ashley Smith and it will take a long time to explore the circumstances of her death,” Julian Falconer said.

Lawyers for Smith’s family and the Canadian Association of Elizabeth Fry Societies are in Toronto this week arguing that Deputy Chief Coroner Dr. Bonita Porter should broaden the scope of the inquest into the teen inmate’s death, which they say was brought on by brutal conditions of confinement and a series of illegal transfers within the “corrupt” federal prison

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