INMATE'S FAMILY FILES LAWSUIT

The family of a woman who died after drinking vomit laced with drugs at a
local correctional centre is suing for damages.

The family of Sonia Faith Keepness filed a lawsuit last week against both
the provincial and federal governments. The family is looking for more than
$700,000 in damages.

The statement of claim alleges that staff involved with the Pine Grove
Correctional Centre, where Keepness was serving time when she died, knew
that inmates were abusing the drug methadone.

Methadone is used to treat people addicted to opiates, such as heroin or
dilaudid.

Speaking about the lawsuit Tuesday, the family's lawyer said that, close to
three years after Keepness's death from a drug overdose, her family is
still looking for an admission of liability in the case.

"We've got a mistake," Saskatoon lawyer Greg Curtis said. "(And)
satisfaction for the family is going to be quite important."

Keepness, 37, was not on the methadone program at the correctional centre
when she died from a drug overdose on Feb. 19, 2002. She had taken the drug
after two other inmates threw up and then gave the methadone-laced vomit to
her.

A pathologist who testified at the inquiry into Keepness's death in March
2003, said her death was most likely caused by a combination of methadone
and librium, which has a sedative effect.

Keepness's death was ruled an accidental overdose by a coroner's jury in 2003.

The inquest into her death found that staff at Pine Grove had been told to
keep a closer eye on inmates after 10 incident reports into methadone use
had been filed in the year before Keepness's death.

The institution later changed its policy regarding methadone patients in
light of Keepness's death to ensure that inmates on the methadone program
are kept under supervision for at least one hour after they take the drug.

The coroner's jury looking into Keepness's death made 14 recommendations in
the case, including a thorough review of methadone programs in each of the
province's correctional centres.

Other recommendations included increased education for inmates about the
dangers of drugs such as methadone; ongoing staff training about
addictions; investigating all reports of illicit drug use; educating
methadone patients about the risks of abusing the drug; and developing a
detox and addictions treatment facility at Pine Grove Correctional Centre.

Andrew Dinsmore, a spokesman with Saskatchewan Justice, would not comment
Tuesday on the lawsuit.

However, Dinsmore said all 14 of the recommendations from the coroner's
inquest into Keepness's death have since been implemented.