Access granted to Ashley Smith records
Posted Apr 29, 2010 03:28:16 PM.
This article is more than 5 years old.
An advocacy group for women prisoners has won a court battle for access to the personal files of a teen inmate who killed herself.
The Federal Court says the prison service was wrong to deny the Canadian Association of Elizabeth Fry Societies access to Ashley Smith’s records.
Smith had alleged poor treatment by the Correctional Service, including assault, lack of psychiatric care and frequent transfers between prisons across Canada.
The 19-year-old choked herself to death with a strip of cloth at the Grand Valley Institution in Kitchener in October 2007. Earlier that year she requested access to her personal prison records and authorized their release to Elizabeth Fry staff.
The Federal Court says the prison service breached the Privacy Act in not giving Smith the records, and that her death was no reason to withhold them from Elizabeth Fry.
