Correctional officers did not properly supervise prisoners the night an inmate from Pelican Narrows committed suicide in a Prince Albert jail cell.
That’s according to media reports stemming from last week’s inquest into the 2013 hanging death of John Bob Glen Custer.
Custer, 19, was in custody at the Prince Albert Correctional Centre while facing a second-degree murder charge in the strangling death of his aunt, Heather Ballantyne, 40, in Pelican Narrows.
Custer was found hanging in his cell on November 24, 2013. A forensic pathologist told the inquest that Custer died between 12:50 am and 2:50 am that day, reports the Prince Albert Daily Herald.
According to witness testimony cited by the Daily Herald, correctional officers did not complete mandatory security checks of cells in the segregation range of the jail that night.
As a result, Custer’s cell went unchecked for seven hours and 35 minutes on the night of November 23 and the early morning of November 24, the newspaper reports.
A six-member jury made a series of recommendations as part of the inquest, held at the Prince Albert Court of Queen’s Bench.
According to the Daily Herald, those recommendations include having the Prince Albert Correctional Centre increase supervision of staff and produce shift reports that highlight inmates at risk for suicide.
Saskatchewan legislation requires that the chief coroner hold an inquest into the death of a person who dies while an inmate at a jail or a correctional facility, unless the coroner is satisfied that the person’s death was due entirely to natural causes and was not preventable.
Heather Ballantyne’s body was discovered in a wooded area of Pelican Narrows on October 29, 2013. Custer, the lone suspect, was arrested three days later.
