Late man's family questions why he couldn't get medication in jail

The family of a 37-year-old man who died in the Saint John jail in 2011 is questioning why he didn't get medical help while detoxing from powerful drugs behind bars.

Jeff Ryan is one of 13 people who have died in custody of provincial jails since 2004. His name and the details of his death have been secret, until now.

A CBC News investigation has found that inmates in New Brunswick frequently complain of having to cope without their medication in jail. Jeff Ryan was one of them.

• Lawyers, advocates question why some inmates denied medication
• Secret New Brunswick jail deaths prompt calls for public review
• Forgotten Deaths: What we know about 13 people who died in jails

"He was really too sick to be in jail," his brother, Shawn Ryan, said in an interview at the family's home in Pocologan, N.B.

Public Safety Minister Denis Landry has declined to be interviewed for CBC's Forgotten Deaths stories.

In an emailed statement, department spokesperson Elaine Bell said inmates aren't allowed to bring their prescriptions into jail with them. Officials can't assume the contents match the label on the bottle.

She said all inmates receive a medical assessment and "steps are taken" to obtain medication for those who need it. The corrections system pays for that medicine.

Bell didn't say why Jeff Ryan didn't get his medication, citing privacy legislation.

Family says calls for help ignored

Jeff Ryan was taking 80 milligrams per day of Oxycontin, an addictive painkiller he was prescribed after being shot in the stomach.

That prescription didn't follow him into the Saint John Regional Correctional Centre after he was arrested for driving without a license.

According to his family, Jeff Ryan spent several days in the jail on remand awaiting a court date, growing sicker as each day passed.

They said they approached his family doctor, who told them she called the jail and sent faxes with details of his prescription.

"But apparently they were ignored," Shawn Ryan said.

A regular user of Oxycontin who suddenly stops taking the drug would be facing powerful symptoms of withdrawal. According to the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, those symptoms include "strong cravings, sweating, muscle aches and insomnia."

Who knows what's best for inmates?

Across the city at AIDS Saint John's uptown office, Julie Dingwell frequently fields calls from clients of the needle exchange clinic who say they can't get their prescriptions in jail.

In some cases, they say they'remissing doses of addictive painkillers and suffering the same withdrawal as Jeff Ryan.

Others say they'renot getting medication for anxiety, depression or other psychiatric disorders, even if those prescriptions have been sent to the jail directly by a family doctor.

Dingwell questions who should be able to determine what's best for an inmate. Should a doctor at a jail be able to override a psychiatrist or family doctor's wishes?

"Who's determining whether or not people are denied access to medications and is it valid?"

She also questions whether it's humane to allow someone to detox "cold turkey" off addictive medication.

'I'm going to die in here'

As he awaited a March 8, 2011, court date, Jeff Ryan's phone calls to his father and brothers adopted an increasingly desperate tone.

They estimate he spent only four or five days in jail, but his symptoms grew worse each day without the medication his body needed to be normal. His voice strained on the phone and he complained of not being able to breathe.

"He was pretty much telling me he was going to die in the jail," Shawn Ryan said."Because he said they were ignoring everything he said."

The day before his court appearance, Jeff Ryanwas too weak to finish their phone conversation, his brother said.

"Someone had to take the phone and they carried him back to his cell. So he wasn't in good shape at all."

A cancelled court date

Jeff Ryan wouldn't make it to his court date.

When his family called the courthouse in St. Stephen to check the time of his court appearance, they said a clerk told them court was cancelled and gave them a number to call.

When Shawn Ryan called the number, he said he reached a Saint John police officer.

"We talked to him for a little while, my brother talked to him for a little while and he said that my brother was deceased, that he died."

They said they weren't told anything about how their brother died.

Publicly, the Department of Public Safety said little about Jeff Ryan's death, only that he died in his cell alone and foul play wasn't suspected. Officials also said the family didn't want his name released.

Both Shawn Ryan and his father, Nelson Ryan, said nobody from the department asked them if they'd like Jeff's name to be made public.

Remaining questions

Five years later, the Ryans say they still don't know what happened to their brother and son. They would like to have a public inquest into his death, something that would be mandatory if Ryan lived inOntario.

People who were in jail with Jeff Ryan have approached them since his death to say that he should have been taken to a hospital, the family said.

They believe he was left in a cell alone without supervision in the hours before his death.

"I don't think they kept an eye on my brother," Shawn Ryan said.

Other families CBC News has interviewed for its Forgotten Deaths seriessay they too have been told little about how their loved one died.

The families of Jeffrey Hood and Jason Hopkins, who took their own lives in the Saint John Regional Correctional Centre in 2006 and 2008, also saythey didn't get their medication behind bars.

Dingwell would like the correctional system to review its rules around withholding medication from inmates.

But she believes the bigger issue lies in the number of poor and mentally ill people behind bars.

"Why is it that we don't have enough people to adequately assess and diagnose mental health problems long before people end up as repeat offenders in jail?"

A good guy

Nelson Ryan remembers his son as a good guy who would give the shirt off his back to help someone else.

He dreams of hiring a lawyer to find out what happened to his son, but admits he doesn't know the law very well.

"[By the time] time you get a lawyer to go through all that stuff, it's going to run into a lot of money that I ain't got," Nelson Ryan said.

"So I figure I'd better just mind my business."

While the Department of Public Safety wouldn't comment on Jeff Ryan's case, Bell said offenders who are sick are treated and their condition is monitored continuously.

A doctor holds clinics at the jail weekly, but it's not clear if Jeff Ryan was in jail long enough to attend one of those clinics.

"The medical needs of the offenders are taken very seriously and every effort is taken to address their requirements in a timely manner," Bell said.

Medication and health care treatment, Bell added, is never withheld as punishment.

Do you have a story idea for CBC New Brunswick's investigative unit? Send it to us here.