MAN WHO DIED AFTER BEING DENIED METHADONE IN JAIL CAUGHT IN LEGAL
LOOPHOLE, FAMILY SAYS

Locked in the slammer and jonesing for methadone -- it's a tough
combination. For Keigo White, it turned lethal.

Last fall, the 40-year-old Toronto man wound up at the Don Jail on
driving and drug offences, his family says. The former heroin addict,
who was placed in the hospital range, was reportedly overheard
threatening to kill himself if not given methadone to satisfy his cravings.

Three days after his admission, on Oct. 9, he was found in his cell,
unconscious and without a pulse. White had taken twisted bedsheets,
tied one around the toilet, placed the other end around his neck, and
violently jerked forward, choking himself.

Paramedics were able to revive him but he had suffered severe brain
damage. Despite being in a vegetative state, police and correctional
officers kept round-the-clock watch over him at Toronto Western Hospital.

Given his condition, a paralegal acting on White's behalf sought to
have the charges withdrawn -- in early December they were stayed and
White was no longer an inmate. A month later, he died in hospital. He
was, in theory, a free man.

Had White died while an inmate of a correctional institution -- even
while in hospital and under guard -- a coroner's inquest would have
been mandatory. But because he wasn't in custody when he died, the
legislation doesn't require that an inquest be called, according to
the Office of the Chief Coroner.

It's a legal loophole, says Michael White, who thinks that both his
family and the public have a right to know the circumstances of his
brother's death. Besides, he says, just because the charges were
stayed doesn't change the fact that his death was directly linked to
what happened at the jail.

"One need not be a rocket scientist to conclude that the ligature
found around the neck of Keigo White caused the irreversible brain
injury which led to his death," writes family lawyer Barry Swadron in
a letter to Correctional Services Minister Monte Kwinter. "The die
was cast: he was simply being kept alive by modern medicine."

The family is calling on the minister of Community Safety and
Correctional Services to order an inquest. The Coroner's Act does
permit the minister to call an inquest, but in Ontario that has never
been done.

Kwinter is expected to make a decision in a few weeks. He refused to
comment on this case until he has fully reviewed the file.

In a letter to Swadron, regional supervising coroner Dr. Albert
Lauwers explained that because correctional officers were removed
from White's hospital room before his death on Jan. 6, "the
legislation does not mandate an inquest and an inquest will therefore
not be conducted." In a subsequent letter, Ontario's Chief Coroner
Dr. Barry McLellan said he agreed with Lauwers' decision and
interpretation of the legislation.

White's family, however, thinks the refusal to call an inquest is an
attempt to cover up the jail's failure to give him methadone and
appropriately treat him.

"When you say you're going to off yourself they should put you on
suicide watch in a cell with no sheets, no instruments and nothing
that could be used to hurt yourself with," says White's foster sister
Kimberly, who asked that her last name not be used. "But they didn't
take him seriously -- they just ignored him."

She said she received a phone call from an inmate at the jail, who
told her he had overheard White yell at the guards, "If you don't
give me my methadone I am going to hang myself."

There is a methadone maintenance program in jails but it is available
only to inmates who were already on a methadone program before being
incarcerated.

As a general rule, institutions will not provide methadone to those
who are used to getting their methadone fix from a dealer rather than
a doctor, unless the inmate is pregnant.

According to his foster sister, White had been buying methadone on
the streets which is probably why the jail refused to give him any.

To this day, the family says, they still wonder if White was
attempting to take his life or simply trying to numb the pain from
methadone withdrawal.

The family has requested the government hand over the file on White's
incarceration while at the Don Jail last year, but they have yet to receive it.

What The Coroner's Act Says

According to the Coroner's Act:

Where a person dies while detained by or in the actual custody of a
peace officer or while an inmate on the premises of a correctional
institution, lock-up, or place or facility designated as a place of
secure custody under section 24.1 of the Young Offenders Act
(Canada), whether in accordance with section 88 of the Youth Criminal
Justice Act (Canada) or otherwise, the peace officer or officer in
charge of the institution, lock-up or place or facility, as the case
may be, shall immediately give notice of the death to a coroner and
the coroner shall issue a warrant to hold an inquest upon the body.

R.S.O. 1990, c.C.37, s.10(4); 2006, c.19, Sched.D, s.4 (2).