Dramatic video of imprisoned teen Ashley Smith released
Posted Jan 8, 2010 03:59:57 AM.
This article is more than 5 years old.
Corrections officials are not commenting on a report on the CBC’s “Fifth Estate” dealing with Ashley Smith – the New Brunswick teen who died in Kitchener’s Grand Valley Institution for Women.
The network shows video from the episode in which she is seen begging guards not to use a Taser on her. The footage was shot by prison staff in New Brunswick.
The 19-year-old is also seen pinned against a wall and complaining her neck was being squeezed.
The report suggests, to get the attention of guards, Smith would often pretend to strangle herself, which she tragically did in 2007.
Her mother, Coralee Smith tells the CBC the guards went into her cell repeatedly and did nothing to help her dying daughter.
The family alleges corrections staff endangered her life by segregating her and not taking proper action after she was declared a suicide risk.
They are suing the federal government.
