The federal Correctional Investigator has concluded in a scathing report that the death of Matthew Ryan Hines at New Brunswick’s Dorchester Penitentiary about two years ago was preventable.
The 33-year-old from Cape Breton was beaten and repeatedly pepper-sprayed at very close range even while he was clearly under the control of officers, which the report says appears to have contributed to the quick onset of ‘compounding medical complications’ and his death from acute asphyxia because of pulmonary edema — a condition which causes excess fluid in the lungs.
“I conclude that Matthew’s death in federal custody was preventable,” Correctional Investigator Ivan Zinger writes in his report.
“It was proximate to multiple uses of inappropriate force. CSC ultimately failed in its duty to protect and preserve Matthew’s life. The implications of this case extend far beyond the immediacy of Dorchester Penitentiary or the tragic events of May 26, 2015.”
On video, Matthew can be heard pleading repeatedly with officers to help him as they head into the segregation unit. The report says that Matthew’s last known recorded words were: “please, I’m begging you” from the locked decontamination shower stall where he was lying on the floor, his hands in cuffs behind him.
His death is recorded shortly after midnight.
“In this case, everything that could go wrong in a use of force intervention went wrong,” Zinger says.
He says that intitially CSC gave information that was misleading and incomplete to the public and Matthew’s family about his death.
Hines was serving a sentence of five years for several charges including robbery.
Matthew Hines Report by Steve MacArthur on Scribd
