Lawsuit claiming wrongful death of Skye Martin renews questions about controversial prison psychiatrist

A recent lawsuit claiming negligence contributed to the wrongful death of a woman at the ClarenvilleCorrectional Centre for Women has renewed questions about a controversial St. John's psychiatrist.

Dr. David Craig has worked in the province's justice system for two decades.

He's one of three parties, along with the provincial government and the superintendent of prisons, named as defendants in a lawsuit filed by Natasha Martin.

• Skye Martin's death won't be in vain, mom vows as lawsuit filed

Natasha Martin isSkye Martin's mother. Skye was 27 when she died on April 21, 2018.

Martin's statement of claim saysCraig's treatment ofher daughter was harmful.

"[Craig's] refusal to provide Skye with her required medication, and the use of segregation to deal with Skye's mental health conditions caused Skye to experience severe mental anguish and emotional injury," it reads.

Inmate complaints

In 2004,CBC news reported ona similar complaint about Craig's practice in the prison system.

At that time the parents of one inmate at Her Majesty's Penitentiary in St. John's, John Bungay, said their son left the penitentiary in worse condition than he went in.

Rex and Meta Bungay of Grand Banksay Craig reduced and then took awaymedication their son had been prescribed for more than five years.

Another formerHMP inmate told CBC in 2012 that he had also suffered in prison because Craig took him off medications he was prescribed by another physician.

• Former inmate decries psychiatric services at HMP

Doug Squires said he was an alcoholic and he used cocaine for years, and startedstealing to support his habit. Eventually he was caught and sent to HMP.

While Squires was inside, he said, Craigtook him off some of the drugs thatanother psychiatrist had prescribedto treat depression and anxiety that he's battledthroughhis life. Squires said his health deteriorated after his medications were stopped.

"I was so sick, vomiting, I started getting these electric shocks going to my head," he said.

N.L. citizens' representative spoke out

In 2011, Newfoundland and Labrador's Citizens' RepresentativeBarry Flemingcalled for Craig to be removed from his duties in the justice system.

In March 2011, Fleming issued a report that found inmates at HMP, some of whom had complained about being taken off prescribed medicine, do not receive the level of psychiatric care that they would receive outside.

Fleming said Craig's approach to prescribing medications is too conservative. He would like to see the prison have a psychiatrist whose approach is more in line with how psychiatrists handle patients in the general public.

"I've met with Dr. Craig and he has strongly held views on his prescription practices. He comes to them honestly and with a well-founded belief in their propriety," said Fleming.

"We just feel that that practice of being conservative with respect to prescription drugs at HMP does a disservice to the inmates down there."

Felix Collins, the justice minister at the time,dismissed the report, saying thecitizens' representative does not have the expertise or jurisdiction to review the work of a psychiatrist. He orderedareview of Craig's work by another psychiatrist, and apeer review of Craig's work in the corrections system,done by psychiatrist Philip Klassen, was released in 2012.

"Overall, Dr. Craig meets the standard of care, where that standard is comparable service provision in other provinces," concluded Klassen, a psychiatrist with the Ontario Shores Centre for Mental Health Sciences,in his 21-page report.

• Prison psychiatrist doing nothing wrong, peer review says

Klassen looked at documentation, including 23 patient charts. He also interviewed Craig and corrections staff.

Craig speaks out

Craig publicly defended his prescribing methods in a Canadian medical journaland then in an interview with CBC News.

• Prison psychiatrist David Craig explains prescribing methods in new article

Craig said he "sought to reduce the unnecessary prescribing of psychotropic medications with abuse potential," citing medications like Valium, Ritalin and sleeping pills in an article he wrote inthe Canadian Journal of Addiction released in December 2015.

In"Swimming against the Tide"Restricting Prescribing Practices in a Prison: A Personal Journey, Craig acknowledgedthat dealing with public criticism for his way of treating inmates has been "difficult."

Craig also wrote that there havebeen positive impacts on the well-being of inmates and on health care costs,by reducing "unnecessaryprescribing rates of psychotropic drugs with abuse potential to prison inmates."

In 1999, when Craig was asked to take over thepsychiatric practice at HMP, he said he warned the director of adult corrections to expect complaints about his conservative approach to prescribing medication.

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