Investigation underway after EMDC records 2nd inmate death of year, 21st since 2009

London’s troubled provincial jail has recorded yet another death involving an inmate, the second so far this year.

A spokesperson for the Ministry of the Solicitor General confirmed Thursday that a male inmate was found unresponsive in his cell on Wednesday morning, and was pronounced dead at the scene by paramedics.

“The ministry cannot provide further details as a number of investigations are underway,” the spokesperson, Andrew Morrison, said in an email, adding that several investigations will take place, including by the Office of the Chief Coroner to determine a cause of death.

“The ministry conducts a mandatory internal investigation to determine whether all ministry policies and procedures were followed with respect to the care and custody of the deceased,” he said.

“The local police may investigate to determine if the death was due to any criminal activity. If it is determined that a death was not a result of natural causes, a mandatory inquest is held to examine the circumstances and manner of the death.”

A London Police spokesperson said officers had responded to the facility, located along Exeter Road in the city’s south end, for a report of an unresponsive male.

“The male was pronounced deceased and a coroner’s investigation was initiated, which the LPS Major Crime Section provided assistance with,” police said.

The victim’s identity was not provided by the ministry or police.

“It’s very sad to see yet another death at this institution,” said Kevin Egan, a partner at McKenzie Lake Lawyers, who is representing more than 13,000 people in a $325-million class-action lawsuit against the province over conditions at the jail.

“My heart goes out to his family and to the inmates and staff whose mental health is no doubt impacted by this latest tragedy.”

The death is at least the 21st involving an inmate at the south London jail since 2009, and is the fifth to be reported since the start of 2021.

In September, a male inmate was found in medical distress in his cell and was later pronounced dead in hospital, according to the ministry. A cause of death was not provided.

Three inmate deaths were reported in 2021, including two within days of each other. The death of a third inmate, Brandon Marchant, 32, in July of that year prompted demonstrations outside the jail involving thousands of people.

The province’s police watchdog, the Special Investigations Unit, cleared the OPP in Marchant’s death that August. The agency had invoked its mandate as the 32-year-old had been arrested by the OPP following a serious crash on Highway 401 near Ingersoll.

The death this week comes days before the start of a delayed inquest into another death at the jail five years ago.

The inquest into the death of Murray James Davis, 24, on Aug. 18, 2017 will begin on Monday and is scheduled to last five days with 13 witnesses. It will be at least the seventh involving an inmate at the facility.

Davis’s inquest was originally scheduled to be held in 2020 as part of a joint inquest that would also examine the deaths of inmates Floyd Deleary, 39, in August 2015 and Justin Thompson in 2016.

After an inmate’s testimony suggested that his death was due to a killing, Davis’s inquest was halted, according to a London Free Press report at the time. The inquest later determined that Deleary died of acute fentanyl toxicity, while Thompson died of cocaine toxicity.

Eighty recommendations were made by the jury following the inquest, the first being that the province consider replacing the jail.

Responding to the recommendations earlier this year, the province highlighted several initiatives it says it had undertaken at the jail, including security upgrades, new program rooms, new staff training rooms, and a new security trailer and canine kennel.

The ministry has also implemented changes to the jail’s yard, dividing it into four sections and adding a yard covering and skylights. The province says it will allow more than one group of inmates to go outside at a time.

The changes, it says, come as part of a $500-million investment over five years to “transform correctional services across the province through new hires” and improvements.

EMDC has been plagued by overcrowding, poor inmate supervision and violence for more than a decade.

Numerous drug overdoses have also been reported at the facility, along with hundreds of COVID-19 cases during the pandemic.

In 2019, the former chief of the province’s Human Rights Commission described the jail as being overcrowded, unsanitary and dangerous, saying it exhibited conditions dehumanizing and antithetical to prisoner rehabilitation.