Inmate dies in custody when she needed mental health support — not jail, family says
CBC
Tamara Frances Lucier was supposed to be in a psychiatric facility for mental health support — but instead she died as an inmate at Windsor's South West Detention Centre over the Christmas holidays.
Her family and inmate advocates are asking how and why she ended up in jail, never convicted of a crime, with a court psychiatrist deeming she needed treatment for her mental illness before being dealt with by the court and legal system.
Her family is now desperate for answers surrounding her Dec. 28 death.
"I lost my daughter, and here today I still haven't had an answer, not an apology from the South West Detention Centre," said Wilfred Lucier, her father.
"To have no answer of what happened to my little girl, that's heartbreaking. I can't even describe it to you."
Officials with the Ministry of the Solicitor General confirm, without naming Tamara, that a number of investigations are underway in connection to the death of an inmate who died that night.
Lucier remembers his 31-year-old daughter as a good and caring person who also battled a number of illnesses for years including bi-polar disorder and schizophrenia.
According to her lawyer Paul Esco, while in the middle of plea bargaining for a number of mostly minor charges against her, a psychiatric evaluation was ordered by the judge.
That assessment by a doctor, dated Dec. 9, determined that Tamara was unfit to stand trial, and it was recommended that she be treated at a psychiatric facility for a period of sixty days to improve her condition so that she could face the charges.
However, according to Esco and Lucier, there were no long-term beds available until January or February, and so the court decided she remain in custody until one became available.
"She wasn't sentenced to be in jail," Esco explained. "She couldn't be released when she was found unfit."
The family was able to get her out on bail for a short period of time with two sureties in December, but Tamara breached the conditions, was re-arrested and had to go back to prison not long before Christmas.
The circumstances around her death on Dec. 28 haunt Lucier.
"I went hysterical to hear my daughter was gone when she should have been safe. She should have been safe. It's sad. So what goes on in them jails?" he asked.
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