Terry Halifax
Northern News Services

HAY RIVER (Sep 27/99) - A coroner's inquest will be held into the details surrounding the suicide of an inmate held at the South Mackenzie Correctional Centre in Hay River.

Daniel Troy Harrington, 36, of Fort Smith was found hanging from a bed sheet in his cell at the remand centre late in the evening of Aug. 12.

The father of the deceased, Paul Harrington, said his family is looking for answers to how this could have happened.

"We're mad -- my family is pissed right off," Paul said.

He feels procedure at the facility was woefully lacking and according to sources he's contacted inside the facility, proper checks were not made on the inmates.

"(The inmates) had to use a payphone in remand to phone the correctional institute to come in and open that room," he said.

According to Corrections officials, policy and procedure was followed, but the elder Harrington questions recent upgrades made at the facility.

"I'd like to know why they just now installed a 'panic button' in there," Harrington asked.

He said his son was in good spirits when they last spoke and the suicide came as a complete shock to the family.

"When we spoke to Troy last, he had said he had a new lawyer and he was looking at putting this all behind him and doing his time. While he was doing his time he wanted to pursue cooking courses to finish his training.

"So he was looking at the future," he added.

His son was awaiting sentencing on the charge of attempted murder, following a stabbing in his Fort Smith home.

His father said the circumstances were extraordinary and the incident was out of character for his son, who was not a violent person.

"You couldn't walk down the street without Troy waving or saying hello," he recalled. "He'd go out of his way to be friendly."

Following the first suicide in NWT Corrections history, Justice Minister Stephen Kakfwi ordered an independent investigation into the death.

Ron McCormick, director of Corrections for Nunavut, conducted that investigation.

"My focus was to look at policy and procedures within that institution and to determine if, in fact, staff had followed policy and procedures regarding client supervision," McCormick said.

While particulars of the incident are not yet public, McCormick said there was no wrongdoing on the part of Corrections.

"It was my determination after two days of interviews with staff, inmates, RCMP and other people involved that it was certainly determined that staff did act within policies and procedures," he said."It is a low security facility and they make checks within the hour," McCormick said.

He said there is nothing they can do if someone is determined to take their life, but they do all they can to prevent it.

"If a person is determined to commit suicide they will succeed, one way or another," he said.

"From a Corrections end of it, we try as much as possible to ensure it doesn't happen."

McCormick's report is now in the hands of the NWT minister, who will hand it off to chief coroner Percy Kinney.

Kinney said the results of his inquest will not be public until spring.

"We're still in the process of compiling information and we've got quite a process ahead of us," Kinney said. "My intention is to hold the inquest before the end of the fiscal year (April 1)."

Kinney's inquest will be based upon all the information gathered.

"Their investigation is parallel -- in tandem to my investigation, which is fine and dandy, but I'm conducting the coroner's investigation," he said. "It may answer some questions I have or bring up some others -- I don't know, I haven't seen it yet."

"Their report is going to be part of what we're going to compile," he said. "I take that, the RCMP's stuff, my stuff and probably get some outside opinions on some things, bring it all together and take a look at it."