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Examining the preventable but predictable death of Ashley Smith

Nicole LeBlanc (Department of Social Work, Carleton University, Ottawa, ON, Canada.)
Jennifer M. Kilty (Department of Criminology & the Social Science of Health, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, ON, Canada.)
Sylvie Frigon (Department of Criminology, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, ON, Canada AND Women’s Studies, University of Ottawa & Carleton University, Ottawa, ON, Canada.)

International Journal of Prisoner Health

ISSN: 1744-9200

Article publication date: 21 September 2015

470

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to examine the fusion of psy-correctional discourse with the dominant risk logic to consider the implication this nexus can have on how self-injurious behaviour committed by women in prison is interpreted and responded to by the Correctional Service Canada (CSC).

Design/methodology/approach

The central focus of the study is an in-depth case analysis of the carceral death of Ashley Smith, a 19-year-old woman who committed suicide in her segregation cell in 2007 after enduring four years of excessively punitive treatment aimed at controlling her self-injurious behaviour.

Findings

Findings illustrate how the fusion of these logics creates a kind of “therapeutic-risk cloak” that reframes the behaviour as “abnormal” and “risky”, which masks the punitivity of strip search and segregation interventions in the name of safety, security and treatment.

Originality/value

Given that correctional officials knowingly failed to intervene when Smith tied the fatal ligature around her neck, a federal inquiry judged her death to be a homicide. By attempting to unveil the “therapeutic-risk cloak” the authors hope to challenge the underlying logic of CSC’s governance and management framework, which not only denies the oppressive gendered carceral reality that is linked to self-injurious behaviour amongst women prisoners, but is also used to justify intervention responses that exacerbate the very behaviour this framework aims to control. Until systemic transformation is achieved that eradicates CSC’s contradictory governance framework, there is no doubt that the authors will continue to see similar preventable deaths take place in prison.

Keywords

Citation

LeBlanc, N., Kilty, J.M. and Frigon, S. (2015), "Examining the preventable but predictable death of Ashley Smith", International Journal of Prisoner Health, Vol. 11 No. 3, pp. 126-140. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJPH-11-2014-0048

Publisher

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Emerald Group Publishing Limited

Copyright © 2015, Emerald Group Publishing Limited

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