N.S. man's letters indicate suicide risk as short-staffed jail kept inmates in cells
CTV
A Nova Scotia man who took his own life inside the Central Nova Scotia Correctional Facility wrote letters that showed he was potential a suicide risk.
For days on end, Richard Murray barely left his jail cell, trapped by staffing shortages that forced officials to lock down inmates.
"This is total cruelty and I only exist in these four walls of hell .... Why do I even fight to see another day?" the 60-year-old Murray wrote in a letter received by his wife Mary Hendsbee on Jan. 16.
By the time the handwritten letter arrived, Murray had given up fighting. The day before, he had taken his own life inside the Central Nova Scotia Correctional Facility.
Murray had been awaiting trial for nine months after his arrest on charges of pointing a firearm and uttering threats at his home near Antigonish, N.S. -- charges he intended to vigorously contest in court.
But his letter -- which was provided to The Canadian Press by family and was subject to review by corrections officers before being posted -- referred six times to his expectation that he would die at the jail, known as Burnside. In it he asked his wife to inform the public of "the wrongful cruelty of a mental health patient kept on purpose until my death."
Murray's wife, his defence lawyer and the union representing jail guards all see his death as a sign of a dangerously under-resourced corrections system, though the province's Progressive Conservative government argues it is making progress to reverse the chronic staffing shortages.
In earlier letters, Murray provided Hendsbee with a grim picture of life during frequent "lockdowns," when corrections managers resorted to confining inmates to their cells rather than allowing the usual 12 hours in the common areas each day. In court documents, the managers have cited a lack of staff as the reason for the confinement.
