
Ashley Smith
Ashley Smith was 19 years when she was allowed, or encouraged, to die. At the time, she was a prisoner of the Grand Valley Institution for Women, in Kitchener, Ontario, Canada.
According to the Canadian government, Grand Valley is in many ways a model women’s prison. Organized around cottages, allowing for maximal self-sufficiency, it fosters a sense of personhood and humanity through what might be called normative social contacts. Women prisoners are allowed a certain level of discretionary time, quiet time, social time, alone time. According to a 2005 commission report, by HM Chief Inspector of Prisons for England and Wales, Grand Valley, or GVI, is a relatively open and `healthy’ prison, fostering “safety, respect, purposeful activity and reintegration”. It’s not perfect, it’s not ideal, but as prisons go, it’s pretty good.
When thinking of Ashley Smith’s story, remember that the place in which she was allowed, or encouraged, to die is one of the model women’s prisons in Canada and in the world at large. This is as good as it gets.
Ashley Smith was a `troubled’ youth, in and out of trouble for minor offenses. She needed help, and in New Brunswick, where her family lived, the public mental health system could not address her needs. And so, instead, she was allowed to go `into the system.’
In March 2002, at the age of 14, Smith was sentenced to one year of probation for harassing phone calls, assaulting strangers on the streets, insulting bus passengers and drivers. A year later she was ordered into a youth center for probation violations. There she underwent psychiatric evaluation that suggested borderline personality disorder, among other possibilities. She was released. Seven months later, while at home, Ashley Smith threw apples at a postal worker. For that she was returned to the youth center, where she spent most of her time in solitary. From then on, she stayed pretty continuously in prison.
In October 2006, Ashley Smith was moved to federal prison, for violations committed while in prison. A year later, she hanged herself.
In less than a year, her last year on earth, Ashley Smith was transferred seventeen times, from Nova Scotia to Saskatchewan. Different prisons, same treatment. Full body constraints. Shackles. Solitary confinement.
On August 30, 2007, Ashley Smith was returned to the Grand Valley Institution for Women.
During her time at GVI, Ashley Smith somehow made ligatures, strips of cloth clearly intended for self-harm. In a two-month span, fifty ligatures were confiscated. On September 24, 2007, Kim Pate, executive director of the Canadian Association of Elizabeth Fry Societies, visited Ashley. At her request, Pate filed a grievance, pleading for release from segregation and transfer to a hospital.
Smith knew she needed help. She knew that segregation was a death sentence. She had spent almost the entire preceding eleven months in solitary confinement. That’s a cell 6 feet by 9 feet: no books, no mattress, no writing implements; often, no clothes. The prison calls it `therapeutic quiet.’ While in federal custody, Ashley Smith received much `therapeutic quiet’, but never a comprehensive psychological assessment.
Pate’s grievance was placed in a grievance box that is only checked once the box is full. The box never filled. In the meantime, Ashley Smith hanged herself.
Seven guards watched and did nothing. They did nothing because they had received orders, in September, to not intervene. Ashley Smith had attempted suicide on numerous occasions. If guards entered to stop her, their actions were considered `use of force’, and involved videotaping, paperwork, and hearings. Rather than waste resources, the prison instructed the guards to not enter as long as Smith was breathing. Once dead, it’s no longer use of force.
This week, almost four years later, the coroner’s court began its inquest. Psychologists argue that Ashley Smith did not commit suicide. She thought people would come to her. She was trying to get help.
Seven guards watched and did nothing, which is to say, they did a great deal. They followed orders.
And Ashley Smith struggled to get help.
There are `ghastly’ videotapes of Ashley Smith’s death. Some say, “Ms. Smith’s death should haunt Canada.” Indeed, it should. At the same time, it would be more apt to say that Ashley Smith haunts Canada and the world. Ashley Smith was sick, she needed help, tried to get help. How did the State respond? It condemned her to live in a box for her last year on earth in a box, preceded by an endless series of cages.
Seven guards watched and did nothing. They were not alone in doing nothing. Ashley Smith haunts everyone.
(Photo credit: UWaterloo.ca)
Uncommon resilience in impossible situation on display in Ashley Smith video http://t.co/gvAOexw
Prison video: Guards remove Smith’s ligature http://t.co/2ECJupY
Prison health care leaves something to be desired http://t.co/0jvsnlf
I just had some questions regarding this case.
If in fact the teen was displaying mental health disturbances early on while living at home. And displayed being a danger to herself and others at different moments during law violation and self harm, did anyone who is an immediate relative ever file a involuntary evaluation for her?
What have the mental health professionals done to help this girl, when she was said to suffer from multiple personality disorder in a section of the article, but later in another paragraph of the article it is specified that she did not receive a psychological evaluation.
Did the mean achieve the end of the correctional institution by ordering the do not enter the solitary confines to help the young girl before she killed herself if they ended up settling a lawsuit later on with the family of the victim? NO-
The truth is that most all prisoner in incarceration suffer from mental health conditions in combination with violence and or criminality. Thus, the only true reform of such people in prison institutions is to integrate mental health evaluation, assessment and treatment while they are serving penal time.
To reduce the rates of recidivism it would be a much needed and intelligent reform to increase the number of mental health professionals in the prison population to work together toward a common goal. To create new programs that will show positive outcomes rather endless recidivism or increased suicides in prisons.
Ashley was not the only teen who has killed herself in prison. There are many more cases. All with similar aspects.
I have some questions …
Prison staff want their faces blurred in Ashley Smith inquest videos http://t.co/oqQdPF
Those who failed to protect Ashley Smith seek to protect themselves http://t.co/vfTrCGy
Lawyers blast coroner in Smith inquest http://t.co/X5FoQ5x
Why so secretive? Ashley Smith inquest becoming a bad joke http://t.co/F95Oyuq
[…] Ashley Smith was 19 years when she was allowed, or encouraged, to die, alone in a fully monitored prison cell. On October 19, 2007, Smith was a prisoner of the Grand Valley Institution for Women, in Kitchener, Ontario, Canada. Seven guards watched her die, and did nothing. Or rather, seven guards followed orders, and did nothing. Then, when they were sure she was dead, they rushed in. […]
She didn’t hang herself, she tied “ligature” around her neck neatly then walked around and lied down quietly, like she did so many times. Staff unfailling came to her rescue in the past, which she responded by biting and assaulting them. Ashley wasn’t seeking stimulation so much as she was seeking to manipulate people she interact with. You play, you pay. You play russian roulette, you pay with your life. No institution will be able to respect a person’s freedom to choose to play russian roulette AND ensure her safety. While out of prison she taunted school officials by playing chicken in the traffic, and other apparent “self harm” behavior that’s not really meant to harm herself so much as garnering attentions to satisfy her insatiable needs.
I wonder how many news anchors and blogs actually read her report when they write and comment on her predicament. Predictably the media takes things out of context and make it sound outrageous to generate public interest and outrage. Dig a little further and you will notice it’s not as ridiculous as the media paint. Ashley has been through many institutions, she was hell bent on manipulating others through threat of self destructions well before she got “in the system.” Every effort has been made to intervene and insert her back into society. She seems to enjoy the attentions she gets (getting arrested, getting a court hearing, being placed in institutions.)
She’s also a pathological liar, she admitted to faking suicide and lying about being suicidal to get attentions. She writes fake stories about feeling suicidal in her journal to get attentions and to manipulate adults into giving what she wants (i.e. to stop transfer to adult institution.) She lied about liking the taser and promised to do everything it takes to earn a zap on a daily basis after she got zapped for the first time. What else did she lie about? How do you cater to the needs of such a sociopath?
Ashley has been through layers upon layers of social intervention institutions and initiatives, she had psychiatric evaluation and intervention, special educations, counseling, youth intervention, multiple attempts to insert her back to the community during her incarceration, she failed to respond to ANY of these efforts. If you critics think the State “did nothing,” well, what more could YOU have done?
@Gale:
Thanks for your detailed response. The quick answer is, given her history and behavior, Ashley Smith should not have been in jail but rather in a treatment facility. The larger issue, in Canada, in the United States, and in all States that have relied on the prison system for … pretty much everything, is that exploding prison populations means, inevitably, that prisons become the principal mental health institution. That needs to be changed. Prisons are not hospitals and should not be used to stand in for real and sustained health care.
After watching the video it becomes apparent there is no Human value attached to a prisoner by their prison guards. This seems to be a common occurence these days or is it that people are finding out about it. In the case of Ashley Smith the treatment she received is that of woman in third worlds which we and many other countries have gone to war to change. Mr. Politician please take a look around home base, we are no better. Those woman guards are like Nazi Gestapo. There are many rebellious teenagers should we march them all off to our concentration camps and then stand by and do nothing while they take their own life. I am appalled with our sytem and hopefully the more disclosure we get the better. If nothing else it exposes these sadistic people who we hire to keep the people who have fallen through the cracks. I might add they are paid well to do this to. Wake up Canada.
Young people usually have a reason for rebelling, they have been bullyed , don’t fit in to the accepted norms and I could go on and on. These kids need help and understanding. Shame on our system, shame on the politicians and law makers. Some of the tax payers money they throw agaiinst the wall for their own benefit should be pumped back into the system to benefit the vary people who contribute it. I’m sure there are many other young people in the same situation, if Ashley Smith’s legacy is to open some eyes then she didn’t die in vain.
[…] October 19, 2007, 19-year-old Ashley Smith, a prisoner under suicide watch, killed herself. Seven guards watched and did nothing to stop her. They were under orders to let her go. Someone wanted to teach her a lesson, not to be `a […]
[…] the world, `troublesome’ and `troubled’ girls, girls like Ashley Smith in Canada, are sent to prison … for their own good. Ashley Smith died while seven guards watched. They were […]
[…] names of the women: Ishrat Jahan, Jackie Nanyonjo, Savita Halappanavar. The names of the children: Ashley Smith, Trayvon […]
Ashley Smith died while seven guards followed orders and watched http://t.co/DY1TBj8jNj #Canada #prison
Hey! This is a case that has been brought out from the silence of the shitty treatments but there are plenty of them. Unfortunately most girls die from this. I’m a very different girl, I went through that shit, but i survived and today I’m fine and I talk open about this.
Yes, I hung myself. Fortunately they cut me down, all blue and unconscious. My neck got damaged and I could hardly move. They just left me in the cell all alone after that, didn’t call for a doctor, no nothing. That was a really shitty night. But I was alive. They were suppsed to have kept their eyes on me at all time but they didn’t so the next day they tried to convince me it hadn’t happened and threatened me not to talk about it. The authorities can’t see they did any shit wrong at all. Well.
I was all messed up from childhood because my mum was mentally disorder and hurt me really bad. Shitty stuff. And some stuff went wrong with my mental configuration. Among others I couldn’t protect myself properly and got violated, abused and raped and grown up men when growing up. That was shitty too.
When in my early teens I was all messed up and couldn’t handle all the crap any more. I messed up and also started to hurt myself. I got in contact with the psycho treatment the first time when I was 14 years old. To keep me calm when talking to me the male doctor put his hand inside my clothes on my breast. That wasn’t really cool so I wasn’t much for listening to him. I got out of the place after some weeks and they had only harmed me, not helped me in any way. Instead I got more fucked up feelings to take care of.
My reaction was to hurt myself even worse. I tried to get help. I ended up getting seven years of the worst treatment in Swedish modern history. Strong medications. Punishments. Violence. And even torture. A shitty mess. I hurt myself even worse.
So bad that have more than 6.000 stiches. I poisoned myself. Over and over again. Internal organs passed out. Others lacked power but was still in the game. I burned myself. With a lighter. So bad I had to have skin transplantations. Once I burned myself while the mental nurse was looking at me and didn’t stop me. I lost that finger. It had to be amputated. I kept burning. More and more amputations. Today I only have two little short onces left on my left hand and four fingers on my right hand. I’m missing some stuff also in my shoes.
I was sent to another hospital. Far away from home. They were supposed to have special treatments. They did. They locked me in a cell like a criminal. They threatened me. They beat me. They refused to give me enough clothes or blankets to stay warm. They took my glasses so I couldn’t see. They didn’t let me contact anyone. Not my family. Not the authorities. Not a lawyer. After seven years on heavy medication they took almost everything away in one day. My whole system went into chaos. Both physically and mentally.
My life was like standing on the shore of the Dead Sea. The lowest place on earth where humans can live. There are only two directions to go. Into the sea where no life can live. Or to start to climb upwards.
I chose death. I hung myself. I was found at the very last moment. Cut down.
Then there was only one choice left. To start to climb. And I did. I managed to get my ass out of there. All alone I stated my journey back to life.
I had permanent damage. Internal organs that didn’t work anymore. Others were still in the game but lacked power. My hands. All the memories. Mentally I was a wreck. After a few months my body went into an even worse disaster. Some poison had long-lasting effects. My cells couldn’t rebuild themselves properly. It affected almost all functions. My brain. Balance. Memory. Concentration. My legs were a shitty mess. I could hardly walk down a sidewalk. A mess and a disaster with fucking everything.
But I’m a fighter and I kept going. And that’s what I’ve done ever since. It has been hell of a journey.
As rehabilitation I choose to study and got myself a master of law. Among others. I do not work as a lawyer, I live life, travel the world and have today been to 70 countries, I run marathons and I climb mountains, big once, last year I was awarded with as the Adventurer of the Year here in Sweden after climbing and camping on the summit of 7546 m Muztagh Ata, without any help, no porters or guides, no oxygen, no ropes, an solo, yes, just me and my backback, the mountain, the mountain goods and life. Actually world record.
And I hold motivational speeches. Sharing how I thought, my mental tools, how to get back to life. How I learned to pimp my life with happiness so the memories wouldn’t tear me apart, how I managed to not feel bitter, how I learned to work with my own need of apologizes, restitutions or revenge instead of hunting for it and could focus on my own life and to get it back on track.
And I’m working on a book. The book will come when the book and I’m ready. I started to write on that book one year ago. I thought I was done with my past. I was terribly wrong. I had to put everything aside and only work with myself. Today I’m not only doing okay. Today I’m not hunted by a terrible restlessness as I was for all those years after I left the pshycho treatment.
Today I’ve learned how to forgive. Myself and others. Everything got a story, even though I don’t know it. In that I can rest. And forgive. Finally there is nothing to forgive. Today I’ve learned how to love myself and others. Unconditionally. I’ve learned how to feel all those kind and caring feelings. Today I’ve learned how to be with myself in a beautiful way. Also to share love with someone else. Both spiritually and with my body. And I’ve learned how to feel beautiful. Today my feeling of being beautiful is stronger than the scars of my past. Today my strongest feeling within is peacefulness.
I needed to reach my feelings of care and love. I needed to be mentally reconfigurated. To be able to do that I needed kindness, smoothness, care, love. So I could dare to move towards those feelings. I wasn’t helped a all from violence, threats, being boxed, tired up and beaten. Instead I got more fucked up feelings to take care of.
I know I’m a miracle girl. My story is different. It’s not only about that I didn’t die. It’s not only about that I can stand and walk as we say here in Sweden. It’s about that I can be happy, feel peace within. That’s the miracle. Most girls dies. Like Ashley. Many of those who aren’t dead are looked in like a terrorist. Why? If it will help, please explain in which proven way it does help. Please bring up the list of all happy mission completed cases. That Ashley is dead is proof enough of mission failed. To learn how to make mission completed it won’t help to deny where we are standing. This is bad. It’s terribly bad. To make mission completed we must dare to face the truth about where we are standing. No matter how bad it feels to see that true. First then we can start to create a direction toward something else. You can blame Ashely, she was all screwed up, she lied, she bla bla. Yes, whatever she was, that screwed up shit was your mission. And this was mission failed. Politicans need to dare to raise their hand if I ask do you think we have a problem here. They doctors need to dare to raise their hand. The social workers. The people running these institutions. All have to dare to raise their hand if I ask if this is a mission failed. And we need to change. So keep going. Keep talking about this issue.
Today I’m holding speeches, doing some workshops and giving interviews. Besides that I’m still giving me some time to rest after this intensive background and headstuff year. I hope I can go to Cho Oyu, 8201 m, in the Himalayas in the summer, I have a dream to camp up on an 8000-meter mountain. One day I will.
Welcome to follow my everyday life, how I try to coop with life. My life isn’t always easy but I keep going. Your ideas, support and feedback is very welcome and appreciated!! Here is my facebook: http://www.facebook.com/anneliwester.liferules
Here is my mail: liferules2012@gmail.com.
Here is my number: +46-73 84 62 75
Please remember – life rules! Whatever happens, life is the big boss.
Anneli Wester
Sweden
[…] On October 19, 2007, 19-year-old Ashley Smith, an inmate at the Grand Valley Institution for Women, in Kitchener, Ontario, Canada, tied a rope around her neck and choked herself to death. Seven guards watched and actively did nothing as all this transpired. […]
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[…] October 19, 2007, 19-year-old Ashley Smith died, or was encouraged to kill herself, while seven prison guards in a model Canadian women’s prison watched, followed orders, and did nothing. And by doing […]
RIP Ashley. We are truly sorry. You did not deserve this. May you be resting in peace in heaven. Shameful. Sad. Tragic.
[…] October 19, 2007, 19-year-old Ashley Smith died by self strangulation while seven prison guards in a Canadian women’s prison, Grand Valley Institution for Women, followed orders, watched and […]
[…] to full body constraint, shackles, and extended solitary confinement. On October 19, 2007, Ashley Smith hanged herself while seven guards watched and did nothing. The State was “shocked”. Some said, “Ms. Smith’s death should haunt Canada.” It didn’t […]
[…] The Ashley Smith inquest continues. Ashley Smith was a 19-year-old woman prisoner who troubled the government of Canada too much with her constant acting out and suicide attempts, and so, finally, was allowed to commit suicide while seven guards stood and watched. […]
Ashley Smith’s mother calls for change as details emerge of Matthew Hines’s death http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/nova-scotia/ashley-smith-mother-prison-death-matthew-hines-mental-illness-1.4098021
CCLA challenges courts to decide on solitary confinement http://www.canadianlawyermag.com/legalfeeds/author/elizabeth-raymer/ccla-challenges-courts-to-decide-on-solitary-confinement-13667/
Solitary confinement being challenged in court http://www.rcinet.ca/en/2017/09/12/solitary-confinement-being-challenged-in-court/
L’isolement carcéral devrait être l’exception http://www.ledevoir.com/politique/canada/516261/isolement-carceral-ce-devrait-etre-l-exception
Solitary confinement struck down as unconstitutional http://www.rcinet.ca/en/2017/12/19/liberties-civil-jail-prison-solitary-confinement-struck-down-as-unconstitutional/
Indefinite solitary confinement is ‘torture,’ say civil liberties groups https://www.ctvnews.ca/canada/indefinite-solitary-confinement-is-torture-say-civil-liberties-groups-1.3928713
Warning signs in prisons: Senators Bernard, Cordy, Hartling and Pate https://www.sencanada.ca/en/sencaplus/opinion/warning-signs-in-prisons-senators-bernard-cordy-hartling-and-pate/
Ashley Smith’s family furious with Trudeau over solitary-confinement bill https://nationalpost.com/pmn/news-pmn/canada-news-pmn/senate-committee-approves-changes-to-solitary-confinement-bill
Canada abandons solitary confinement appeal to Supreme Court https://www.theglobeandmail.com/canada/article-canada-abandons-solitary-confinement-appeal-to-supreme-court/