Jury recommends better surveillance, safety measures following Kalin Holonics death inquest
The public inquest into the death of Kalin Dean Holonics concluded on Wednesday with a verdict from the jury.
The 25-year-old man from Estevan was found dead in his cell at the Regina Correctional Centre on July 9, 2020.
The public inquiry was heard from a total of six jurors, who gave their verdict late Wednesday afternoon.
The jury determined through the evidence provided that Kalin Dean Holonics died between the hours of 12:30 a.m., and 5:30 a.m., and the manner of the death was accidental.
The jury also presented a list of 11 recommendations for the Ministry of Corrections, Policing and Public Safety and the Regina Correctional Centre.
The recommendations for the ministry included:
- Enact a drone policy within 500 metres of the correctional centre
- Public inquests occur closer to incident 120 days to six months
- Add additional fencing around the correctional centre to prevent throw overs
- Correctional officers must receive additional training every two years for CPR, first-aid, and naloxone. The training must be in person.
The recommendations for the Regina Correctional Centre included:
- Improve all camera technology inside and outside.
- Check list for correctional officers during their hourly checks. Including references to lights on/off, sleeping, position of sleeping.
- Add an additional body scanner near the doors where inmates go outside to perform duties.
- Review size of windows within doors and install larger windows.
- Pilot project a full time drug dog for one year and look at results.
- Change terminology for inmates working outside from “outside gangs” to “outside team or crew”.
- Investigate use of heart rate risk band to monitor inmate.
The recommendations will be sent to the coroner’s office before being sent to their respective organizations.
Prior to the verdict, the jury heard testimony from the Director of the Regina Correctional Centre Darrell Olbrich.
During the testimony, emotions were prevalent while Olbrich answered questioned on training, policy, and drugs.
A month prior to Holonics death, the province of Saskatchewan implemented a new policy mandating correctional staff do hourly checks on inmates.
On the night of Holonics death, checks were only done at 12:00 a.m., 3:00 a.m., and 5:00 a.m.
The Regina Correctional Centre implemented the policy shortly after Holonics death.
Olbrich’s answers unsettled members of the public, some of whom were family members of Holonics.
Crying and yelling could be heard outside of the inquest walls as Olbrich responded to questions about policy and drugs.
The director also said he saw no issue with correctional officers performing the checks throughout the night of Holonics death, saying they were up to policy standard.
Correction officers must identify skin, however looking for signs of life are not written into the policy.
Olbirch also said he is aware of the problem of “throw overs.”
A "throw over" references illegal drugs being thrown over prison walls, which are then picked up by inmates who smuggle the drugs back inside the correctional centre and sell them to other inmates.
Olbirch said the correctional centre has taken precautions to stop “throw overs” in the last several months.
According to Olbrich, nets, extended walls, scanners, as well as photocopying mail before distributing it to inmates are precautions that the correctional centre has taken to prevent drugs from getting into the facility.
Olbrich did agree that further training could benefit correctional officers.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
Bodies found by U.S. authorities searching for missing B.C. kayakers
United States authorities who have been searching for a pair of missing kayakers from British Columbia since the weekend have recovered two bodies in the nearby San Juan Islands of Washington state.
Amid concerns over 'collateral damage' Trudeau, Freeland defend capital gains tax change
Facing pushback from physicians and businesspeople over the coming increase to the capital gains inclusion rate, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his deputy Chrystia Freeland are standing by their plan to target Canada's highest earners.
'It's discriminatory': Individuals refused entry to Ontario legislature for wearing keffiyeh
Individuals being barred from entering Ontario’s legislature while wearing a keffiyeh say the garment is part of their cultural identity— and the only ones making it political are the politicians banning it.
BREAKING Mounties will not be charged in shooting death of B.C. Indigenous man
Three Mounties in British Columbia will not face charges in the killing of a 38-year-old Indigenous man on Vancouver Island in 2021.
Canada's favourite sport to watch is hockey, survey shows
The 2024 Stanley Cup playoffs have already delivered a fever level of fan excitement in Canada.
Douglas DC-4 plane with 2 people on board crashes into river outside Fairbanks, Alaska
A Douglas C-54 Skymaster airplane crashed into the Tanana River near Fairbanks on Tuesday, Alaska State Troopers said.
Tom Mulcair: Park littered with trash after 'pilot project' is perfect symbol of Trudeau governance
Former NDP leader Tom Mulcair says that what's happening now in a trash-littered federal park in Quebec is a perfect metaphor for how the Trudeau government runs things.
'It's just so hard to let it go': Umar Zameer still haunted by death of Toronto police officer
“It's just so hard to let it go. I mean, everyone is telling me, ‘you have to move on,’ but I know someone is not here [anymore]. So I don't know how I will move on." That’s what Umar Zameer, the man recently acquitted in the death of a Toronto police officer, told CTV News Toronto in a sit-down interview on Tuesday.
NASA hears from Voyager 1, the most distant spacecraft from Earth, after months of quiet
NASA has finally heard back from Voyager 1 again in a way that makes sense. The most distant spacecraft from Earth hadn't sent home any understandable data since last November.