Damien Théroux died on Dec. 17 in Bordeaux provincial jail; it was a drug overdose, stated his father and his girlfriend. (Noémie Tremblay)
The demise of a 21-year-old in a Montreal jail in December went unreported, garnering no headlines, however his household says it was useless—and that Quebecers ought to know concerning the sort of troubling jail situations they consider led to it.
Damien Théroux died on Dec. 17 in Bordeaux provincial jail. It was a drug overdose, stated his father and his girlfriend. However regardless that he smoked pot in jail, he hadn’t routinely been taking drugs.
Just a few days earlier than his demise, Damien informed his father that he had developed an ear an infection. It received extra painful, however he nonetheless wasn’t taken to Bordeaux’s infirmary, telling his father that he wasn’t permitted to go due to COVID-19 issues, maybe restrictions or maybe understaffing.
“He had that [ear infection] for about three or 4 days previous to his demise,” his father, Daniel Théroux, informed CTV Information.
“I’m fairly certain, as a result of he had no entry to medical well being, he tried to self-medicate to alleviate ache from his ear an infection. I believe that’s the explanation he died.”
Théroux's demise got here after a fancy set of occasions, nevertheless it factors to a rising disaster at Quebec prisons and Bordeaux particularly, the place COVID-19 has led to very low staffing and what prisoners’ pals and households describe as chaos, with rodent infestations, fixed violence, and drones dropping medicine and weapons into the jail courtyard.
The Ministry of Public Safety says the general scenario is below management, regardless of COVID-19.
However the prisoner guards’ union says that staffing has been solely at about 50 per cent in some prisons within the final couple of months. A Quebec court docket not too long ago dominated that it was affordable to disclaim prisoners some primary rights, akin to going exterior, due to exceptionally low staffing and COVID-19 outbreaks.
Théroux stated he finds it troublesome to speak about “the shock” of Damien’s demise. “It brings tears to my eyes,” he stated.
On the similar time, the younger man’s family members wish to know: how did he have such quick access to illicit, probably deadly medicine, and such restricted entry to well being care?
“I’m mad on the jail as a result of they didn’t provide him any help or medical assist,” his father stated.
STRUGGLING WITH MOTHER’S DEATH
Earlier than final yr, Damien had been working as an arborist and dwelling east of Montreal in Mont-Saint-Hilaire.
He landed in jail after a private disaster following his mom’s suicide final yr, which triggered a stage of heavy drug use. He was concerned in a house invasion, his father stated.
However his son was recovering from that interval whereas in jail, the place he was finally given a four-year sentence.
“He was stuffed with initiatives and he wished to enhance his life and get out of jail,” stated Théroux. “He was speaking about ending college and studying mechanics.”
Damien’s girlfriend, Noémie Tremblay, stated that the 2 had talked of shopping for a rental or home with the inheritance from his mom’s demise, and sooner or later having a child.
“This was a man stuffed with ambitions,” she stated. “He wished to get via it, he didn’t have a straightforward previous, he was actually an excellent boy however extraordinarily damaged.”
Théroux and Tremblay stated that Damien had not too long ago made a take care of prosecutors to plead responsible and be transferred inside a couple of months to a federal jail, the place he believed he’d have higher situations—the power to do schoolwork and, crucially, to have visits, which had been largely shut down at provincial prisons below COVID-19 lockdown.
“He simply wished love and help, and due to COVID, there have been no visits,” Tremblay stated. “He simply wished to plead responsible so he may stay higher."
Damien first went to Riviere-des-Prairies jail, additionally provincial, and was transferred round August to Bordeaux, the place he informed his father that the situations have been markedly worse, with no air-con in summer time, damaged home windows, insufficient meals and “a lot of violence,” Théroux stated.
Prisoners can be “beat up, some folks would spill boiling water or espresso on folks, folks have been placing cans in socks and hitting different folks,” he recollects his son telling him.
Damien additionally reported that prisoners have been “promoting and shopping for drugs,” amongst different medicine, Théroux stated, which ended up being a better threat to him than violence.
The Quebec coroner is investigating Damien’s demise, and the general public safety ministry can be doing its personal investigation into the demise, it stated.
However a toxicology report hasn’t but been supplied to his household, stated Théroux, in order that they aren’t certain what sort of drugs his quickly took, or what number of.
‘A RAT DROPPED FROM THE WALL’
Different family and friends of inmates at Bordeaux say they’re aghast by the tales they hear in calls house.
Heidi Nagy’s brother, age 62, informed her about being confined in a basement room “with fecal matter all over the place—on the flooring, the bathroom, the wall,” she stated.
Her brother befriended a younger man within the jail, Alex Battah, and was there in early January when Battah, a barber, was stabbed and almost died (La Presse reported that he recovered).
“My brother was attempting to assist him… my brother stated there was blood all over the place,” Nagy stated. Different inmates then started to threaten her brother.
Because the Omicron wave grew, “they have been locking everyone down for twenty-four hours a day,” she stated. “For some time he was attempting to determine how you can commit suicide.”
One other girl, Zara Comer, has been attempting to communicate with a 72-year-old buddy of hers, musician Robert Brant, who's in jail for the primary time at Bordeaux after a drug conviction.
“He’s seen three folks stabbed,” she stated. “He stated medicine have been getting dropped by drones after which folks have been killing one another over them… he looks like he’s simply gone via a struggle.”
Severely diabetic, he has remedy with him in jail however needed to plead repeatedly to be seen by a physician as his ft started to swell, solely being despatched to the infirmary as soon as he was not in a position to stroll, Comer stated.
He informed her the jail was stuffed with rats and mice, together with the infirmary, the place “somebody pulled a rat out of the wall proper beside him,” Comer stated.
Quebec’s ministry of public safety stated in a press release that inmates consuming of their cells throughout COVID-19 lockdown will increase the presence of rodents, however that there are common exterminations and weekly preventive “anti-parasitic remedies.”
They stated typically inmates do smear feces on the partitions, nevertheless it will get cleaned up. They usually stated staffing isn’t accountable for the inmate violence.
“There isn't any proof to ascertain a hyperlink between the presence of experiences of violence and the shortage of personnel,” the ministry stated.
Drones dropping illicit supplies into the jail is a “well-known” and longstanding challenge, it stated, that requires advanced options.
There have been many documented situations of drones flying over Bordeaux and dropping packages that may include medicine, weapons and different harmful supplies.
“To make sure their effectiveness, we can not describe intimately the countermeasures in place,” stated the ministry. However the measures embrace a system of remark, “the securing of courtyards (latticed roofs) and cell home windows,” searches and information-sharing with police.
“There isn't any answer, whether or not technological, structural or in any other case, that may single-handedly and reliably stop drone overflights of detention services or drone deliveries,” the ministry stated.
A THIRD OF STAFF ABSENT, ON AVERAGE
Relating to Damien Théroux’s demise, a key truth could also be merely that the health-care system is overstretched, whether or not in hospitals or in prisons.
“With the health-care staff who work on the Bordeaux infirmary, there’s a fee of absenteeism—it’s a bit like [any other] health-care setting,” the pinnacle of the jail guards’ union, Mathieu Lavoie, informed CTV Information.
“For a small well being downside, there’s a delay” in acquiring care, in lots of circumstances, he stated.
This has been the case for longer than the Omicron wave, he stated. “Clearly there’s a scarcity of personnel there for a very long time and that creates an issue,” he stated.
The ministry of public security wasn’t in a position to reply instantly when requested about health-care entry in prisons not too long ago, together with in Damien Théroux’s case.
However a revealing court docket ruling two weeks in the past confirmed simply how extreme the general staffing challenge is at Quebec provincial prisons proper now on the subject of guards.
On the RDP jail, virtually half the workers have been absent as of Jan. 17, 2022, in line with testimony of Michel Lefebvre, the ability’s service director, in a case introduced by an inmate who had been denied his regular proper of time outdoor within the courtyard.
The common throughout Quebec was about 25 to 30 per cent absenteeism on the time, Superior Courtroom Justice Yvan Poulin wrote.
With an absenteeism fee of 47 per cent at RDP — virtually double the common — and an outbreak of COVID-19 infections, Justice Poulin dominated that decreasing the hours an inmate may depart his cell was affordable.
There are usually 307 workers at RDP. However in January, simply 125 workers have been answerable for overseeing 440 inmates, Lefebvre testified.
There have been 47 vacant positions, 88 different employees members have been absent for “varied causes,” and 20 have been away as a result of COVID-19.
At Bordeaux, the staffing scenario hasn’t been fairly so unhealthy, stated Lavoie, the union head, nevertheless it’s nonetheless very low in comparison with regular.
That makes it “extraordinarily problematic” to handle “the pressure of tensions” rising inside a jail, stated Lavoie, the president of the Syndicat des brokers de la paix en providers correctionnels du Québec (SAPSCQ).
Proscribing inmates’ motion is “not one thing that surprises me, after we see the absenteeism that we're at present seeing,” Lavoie informed CTV Information.
In court docket, jail managers testified there simply weren’t sufficient employees readily available to correctly handle the inmates, so it needed to reduce down on common operations, with a brand new outbreak making issues worse in current months.
The ministry informed the court docket it has launched a number of measures to enhance the scenario, together with recalling retired officers to assist out and hiring extra officers via a faster course of agreed upon with the union.
It additionally reassigned officers stationed at courthouses and moved inmates from RDP to different jails to ease the bottleneck.
“Though there was certainly a breach of the applicant’s residual freedom… the measures taken by the [RDP prison] are meant to make sure the protection of inmates and correctional officers in an distinctive and distinctive context of wrestle to the pandemic… for which corrective measures are being put in place,” Justice Poulin wrote in dismissing the inmate’s utility.
Lavoie stated the absenteeism has was a longer-term downside, although, with burnout and stress. There was a rise of 40,000 time beyond regulation hours in 2021 in comparison with 2020, he stated.
“Proper now, it’s exhaustion,” Lavoie stated, including that greater than 100 staff stop final yr. “It’s a significant issue of recruitment, attraction and retention.”
He stated jail guards typically really feel ignored by authorities, particularly as they’re formally deemed not important.
“We're a couple of steps away from an important service of justice, however typically, we're hidden behind closed doorways,” he stated. “There may be a number of frustration.”
Damien Théroux, 21, is pictured along with his girlfriend, Noémie Tremblay. (Noémie Tremblay)
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