PRISON REGIME KILLED EX-CON?

Grieving brother:

A heroin-addicted bank robber who died of a methadone overdose a week
after being released from Kingston Penitentiary "never had a chance,"
his grieving family said yesterday.

Fighting a heroin addiction that his family says began after he first
went to prison years ago, Chris Melanson overdosed on the injectable
withdrawal drug on Christmas night -- his 40th birthday -- and died
the next day.

Prior to cremating his dead brother, Dave Melanson told The Toronto
Sun yesterday Chris was "dumped" out of Kingston Penitentiary a week
before Christmas after spending weeks alone in an isolated segregation
cell.

"He went into prison years ago as a bank robber and came out as a
heroin addict," Melanson said. "I want answers ... All I know is that
I have a dead brother."

Melanson said his brother went to sleep on the family couch on
Christmas night. He didn't stir when family members tried to rouse him
at 2 p.m. on Boxing Day.

That night he was removed from life support at a local hospital. The
coroner's office investigates all methadone deaths.

The family later learned he'd taken at least two hits of methadone
from his wife's supply for the Christmas holidays. Chris had married
her while in prison.

Melanson said his brother did a six-year prison stint for a string of
robberies in the mid-1980s. In 1991, he got another seven years for a
series of bank robberies.

"A lot of guys become addicts just trying to cope with the situation,"
Melanson said.

"Prison's not the nice place that people would have you believe."