Forgotten Deaths: Mother wants inquest after son's jail suicide

A mother whose son took his own life inside the Saint John Regional Correctional Centre is calling for a coroner's inquest into his death.

Barb McAllister has spent the last eight years trying to piece together how her mentally ill son went from small run-ins with the law to dying inside a jail cell.

But most of her questions about his final hours remain unanswered.

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A CBC News investigation has found that 13 people have died in custody of New Brunswick's provincial jails since 2004.

McAllister's son, Jason Hopkins, was one of them.

The Minto man'sidentity was uncovered after CBC News scoured more than a decade's worth of coroner's inquest reports, death notices and news clippings to identify the 13 people who died.

Hopkins was on remand awaiting trial for an impaired driving charge when he used a laundry bag to hang himself inside his cell. He died on July 30, 2008.

Less than two years before his death, another inmate, Jeffrey Hood, hung himself with a laundry bag inside a cell at the very same jail.

McAllistersaid shebelieves that recommendations stemming from Hood's death should have prevented her son from taking his life in a similar way.

"My son's death shouldn't have happened because of his death," she said.

Details of cases kept secret

Little is known about most of the 13 people who have died behind barsor in custody of jails in New Brunswick.

Public Safety Minister Denis Landry declined to be interviewed for this story. He said privacy legislation prevents him from discussing specific cases.

OmbudsmanCharles Murrayhas called for public reviews of all jail deaths in the province, similar to the mandatory coroner's inquests called after a jail death in Ontario.

While McAllister knows little about how her son died, she remembers every detail about his life, from the time of their last phone call on the day of his death 4:04 p.m.to the name of every medication he was supposed to take.

Hopkins couldn't read or write. He struggled with depression and eventually turned to drugs and alcohol.

McAllister said his involvement with the justice system started after he fired a pellet gun and damaged a window on a car.

Most of his crimes, his mother said, were fuelled by addiction.

"I wouldn't lie for him and he knew that,"she said.

"But at the same time, if he did something he knew he should not have done, he would tell me he did it."

1last arrest

Hopkins was arrested for the final time on June 14, 2008 on suspicion of impaired driving.

Because he was on probation, he was sent to the Saint John Regional Correctional Centre to await a court date that was weeks away.

McAllister talked to her son every day on the phone, but she had no idea he was suicidal.

It wasn't until after his death, she said, that she learned he had tried to take his life behind bars once and was placed on suicide watch.

She knew he was gone after her husband woke her up at 5 a.m. on the day of his death. She spotted an RCMP cruiser in their driveway.

It didn't sink in until the clock struck 1 p.m. They had coffee every day at that time and he faithfully kept the appointment by phone when he was in jail.

"I knew he was dead at 1 o'clock that afternoon, when he didn't call," she said.

Son's final hours still a mystery

Eight years later, McAllistersaid shedoesn't know how her son spent the last day of his life.

She wonders why guards didn't spot him sooner, if he was being checked every 15 minutes.

She said shewonders why he wasn't receiving his medication while behind bars.

She said she counted his pills when she got his belongings from the jail and he hadn't taken any since his arrest.

McAllister said she met with the chief coroner and begged for an inquest, but was told it wasn't needed.

"It doesn't matter if it's behind cell doors," she said.

"Those people don't count."

Unanswered questions

McAllister isn't the only family member with unanswered questions.

The family of Jeffrey Hood still has questions about his suicide death at the Saint John jail, nearly a decade after a coroner's inquest was held.

Cindy Reid, his sister, said she wonders why her mother learned of the death through a voicemail message.

She wonders why he was left to come off Dilaudid, a powerful and addictive prescription medication, cold turkey, and why jail staff didn't heed warnings from the family that Hood was suicidal.

And she still doesn't know why her big brother had a laundry bag and why the sprinkler he hung it on didn't break with his weight.

Until they know, Reid said her family won't have closure.

"People do forget the ones that died in there, except the families. They don't forget," she said.

Her brother was serving a six-month sentence for breach of probation.

But he was also a father of three and brother to six.

"Even though they are criminals, they need to be remembered too," she said.

Laundry bag recommendation 'taken seriously'

Len Davies, the province's director of correctional services, said he couldn't say for sure that laundry bags have been taken out of service inside jails.

"I'm very comfortable in saying that recommendation would have been taken seriously," he said.

Corrections officials likely adopted a different product. Davies said it would have been "irresponsible" not to do that.

"It doesn't mean that the product that was chosen was any more effective," he said.

McAllistersaid shebelieves her son's death could have been prevented, if only the correctional system learned from Hood's death.

"I was told that all of the laundry bags had been removed by the province after Jeffrey's death. Really? Well, you forgot something," she said.