Detention cell suicide prompts call for yearly audit

A fatality inquiry report about a woman who killed herself in an Airdrie jail five years ago says serious deficiencies in the holding cells had long been overlooked.

Sylvie Claudette Latimer, 36, was found dead in her cell at the Airdrie RCMP detachment in 2007, having hanged herself by her sweater from the bars of the cell door.

Provincial court Judge A.J. Brown’s report, released Tuesday, noted serious deficiencies in the Airdrie cells were identified in RCMP reviews as far back as 2005 and made known to the landlord, the city of Airdrie.

He also said that while Airdrie city council discussed the need to upgrade the holding cells on several occasions, the issue was not formally raised with the province’s solicitor general.

The cells have since been remodelled without bars and surveillance cameras have been installed.

Judge Brown recommended an annual audit on all detention cell facilities in the province and deficiencies quickly corrected. He said any facilties that aren't up to moderns standards should be closed.

The fatality report also noted Latimer’s most recent suicide attempt, a month before her death, had not been documented properly and passed along to other authorities.

Judge Brown recommended "a confidential mental health electronic data bank be made available to police agencies, so as to allow police to be alerted to mental health problems, including suicidal tendencies, of people taken into custody.”

On the night Latimer died, the guard on duty failed to investigate when, at 2:15 a.m. — fifteen minutes before she was found dead — the prisoner could not be seen in her cell.

Judge Brown said this was a breach of RCMP policy.

“Guards are generally drawn from the Corps of Commissionaires and are not required to pass an annual physical and mental health assessment,” the report said. It also noted that the guard in question was not able to testify at the inquiry because he had developed Alzheimer's disease.

The report recommends more rigorous practices be put in place for hiring guards at the detention cells in Airdrie, instead of the current “very informal and inconsistent” processes.