As N.S. jail death toll mounts, father grieves son and calls for corrections reform
Global News
The grieving parent said his 33-year-old son's suicide on April 26 should be remembered as an example of how the provincial corrections system is failing to protect inmates' lives.
A memorial plaque with a laser-etched image of Christopher Young wearing a Santa hat sits on a shelf at his father’s Halifax home.
“That’s how I’ll always remember my son, as a happy guy,” said Gerry Young, 61.
However, the grieving parent said his 33-year-old son’s suicide on April 26 — the fifth of six deaths in Nova Scotia jails in the past 18 months — should be remembered as an example of how the provincial corrections system is failing to protect inmates’ lives.
“I guarantee you this could have been prevented,” he said during a recent interview in his home. Young said his son had tried and failed to kill himself years ago at the Central Nova Scotia Correctional Facility — commonly known as Burnside jail, where five of the deaths have occurred. Staff at the facility should have been on alert for a repeat attempt to hang himself, Young said.
Christopher had been readmitted to the jail shortly before his suicide, after he violated parole conditions for theft and shoplifting convictions.
“Given he was just re-incarcerated I think they should have had him in one of those cells where they put people who are in danger of hurting themselves,” Young said.
After the deaths of Christopher and five other Nova Scotia inmates since January 2023, advocacy groups are calling for deep reforms to the provincial system.
In March, the East Coast Prison Justice Society held a series of panels calling for such things as open and mandatory inquiries into all jail deaths; supports for Indigenous and Black inmates; and improved mental-health and substance-abuse treatment both in jails and in the community.