Ashley Smith inquest: Warden denies ordering guards not to enter cell Cindy Berry, former warden at Grand Valley prison, testified at the inquiry into Ashley Smith’s death for a second day. Despite having numerous reports from Grand Valley guards showing they were often holding off on seizing ligatures from Ashley Smith even though her face was turning blue from choking, the woman in charge at the time says she didn’t inquire into what the officers were doing. Cindy Berry, the acting warden at the Kitchener prison between August and November 2007, testified Tuesday at the inquest into Smith’s death that the guards’ observation reports — many of them showing officers leaving Ashley in her cell with a tight ligature around her neck for several minutes — were discussed at operational meetings in the institution, but that only the “gist” was read out. Berry, who maintains that she never told guards to wait to respond to Ashley if she was still breathing with a ligature around her neck, said that guards were to decide for themselves when Smith was at “imminent risk of serious bodily harm or death” and respond accordingly. But Julian Roy, counsel for the Smith family suggested to Berry that despite the overwhelming evidence from the guards reports showing they were delaying entering Smith’s cell when she was turning purple and blue, Berry ignored that information because “come hell or high water, staff were not to enter her cell?” “No, that would not be correct,” Berry responded. Several senior managers under Berry have testified that she was very concerned about the number of use-of-force reports from Grand Valley pertaining to Ashley that were being forwarded to Corrections Canada’s national and regional headquarters. Berry was afraid the number of these reports reflected badly on Grand Valley, the witnesses have told the inquest. These reports were filed whenever guards used force against Smith, which was often given her habitual ligature tying. Berry maintained Tuesday, as she did Monday, that it wasn’t the number of reports she was concerned about, but rather “non-compliance” with use-of-force guidelines. But an audio recording of a conversation Berry had with one of her correctional managers Oct 15, 2007 — four days before Ashley died, and while the teen was on a suicide watch after becoming deeply despondent about receiving additional jail time — was played at the inquest Monday. On it, the manager talks about guards dealing with Ashley’s ligature tying that day, but rather than ask about Ashley’s condition given her suicide status, Berry asks several questions about how many times guards used force to respond to Ashley. “Why were you so worried (in that phone call) about the number of uses of force?” Howard Rubel, the lawyer at the inquest representing the guards, asked Berry. “As I said (Monday) I don’t know,” Berry responded. The inquest also heard that Berry considered Joanna Pauline, her deputy warden at the time, incompetent and unable to manage crisis situations at Grand Valley. Several senior managers, including Pauline herself, say that by October 2007 Berry didn’t trust Pauline to manage anything serious at the prison, and was micromanaging pretty well everything Pauline did. Pauline testified last week that it was under orders from Berry that she passed along directions that guards were not to enter Smith’s cell immediately, but to wait, observe her breathing and look for signs of “distress.” Berry said she gave no such order, but when asked by Rubel how Pauline could be telling this to guards without her knowledge, given she was scrutinizing everything Pauline did so closely, Berry said: “I didn’t review everything Joanna did.’’
Posted on: Tue, 01 Oct 2013 23:20:07 +0000
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