Pubdate: Fri, 21 Mar 2008 Source: Maple Ridge Times (CN BC) Copyright: 2008 Lower Mainland Publishing Group Inc Contact: http://www.mrtimes.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1372 Author: Amy Steele Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/prison.htm (Incarceration) DEAD INMATE'S MOM WANTS ANSWERS Patricia Wigham wants an investigation into how drugs get into jails. When Patricia Wigham heard that her 20-year-old son had been found dead in his cell at Fraser Regional Correctional Centre of a suspected drug overdose on March 14, her worst fears were realized. "My body, I felt like a quadriplegic. I had no feeling from the neck down. I was numb," she said. Her son, Kyle Wigham, ended up at FRCC after being sentenced to nine months jail time on Feb. 12 for robbing a 7/11 in Chilliwack with a crack pipe. He got away with approximately $150. It was his first criminal offence. Patricia was immediately fearful after he was sentenced to jail time because "there's more drugs in there than on the street." Now her grief is mixed with anger at the prison system that was supposed to rehabilitate him but which he ended up dying in. "You shouldn't have to fear about your loved ones if that's where they're going," she said. "One month there and that's what happens? It's wrong and somebody has to be held accountable for it." The RCMP and the B.C. Coroner's Service are investigating Wigham's death. Regional coroner Vince Stancato can't comment on the cause of the death because the investigation is in the early stages. The autopsy has been completed and he said it could take two or three weeks before the results of the toxicological examination are known. Lisa Lapointe, spokesperson for B.C. Corrections couldn't comment on cause of death because of the ongoing coroner's investigation. However, a spokesperson for the union that represents correctional officers at FRCC, Dean Purdy, said he had heard from sources that a drug overdose was the suspected cause of the death. Kyle had been a heavy duty machine operator. Patricia said he loved life and had "such an appreciation for the outdoors." He loved fishing and hunting, country music and debating politics. She laughed when recalling how she would never read a newspaper around him. "I'm not into politics and he was so into politics," she said. "He was well mannered, had the biggest heart in the world...He was a ray of sunshine," she said. Kyle leaves behind a 12-year-old sister and 17-year-old brother and many friends and relatives who loved him, said Patricia. He had been struggling with a crack cocaine addiction for the past two years and had tried to get clean in rehab three times without success, said Patricia. When he robbed the 7/11 in Chilliwack he was on prescribed anti-depressants, he'd been drinking and doing crack cocaine, said Patricia. "He said he was a walking time bomb that night," said Patricia, who added Kyle was normally a mild-manner kid who "wouldn't hurt a flea." Patricia was the one who turned Kyle into police after she heard what he had done. "I did it out of love. I didn't want to see him go down that path," she said. "I wanted him to get mandatory drug rehab." Kyle wrote a letter to the clerk he had robbed apologizing for what he did. He told Provincial Court Judge Thomas Crabtree, "I'd like to say jail's really not the place for me." The Crown argued for a nine-to 12-month sentence. Crabtree sentenced him to nine months, but gave him four months credit for time served prior to the sentencing. Patricia describes the court's attitude as "let's just throw him away when there are other options out there." Once Kyle ended up in prison, it was a traumatic experience for him. "He was scared and he said he didn't communicate with anyone. He kept to himself," said Patricia. "I worried every day about my child being in there." She's outraged that drugs are getting into prisons where addicts who are doing time can become further entrenched in their addiction. "It's got to stop," she said. "I want a total investigation on this." Patricia said she wants to know how drugs are entering the prison. "My concern is how are they getting in there if there's no contact visiting and there's plexiglass between you (and the prisoner)," she said. "Are they coming in by staff or workers? I really want to make a stir here because I would never want to hear of any other family, mother or siblings having to go through what I've gone through." Stancato said after the investigation is completed the case would be forwarded to an inquest committee that determines whether a public inquest would be conducted. Unlike when someone dies in police custody there's no mandatory inquest when a person dies within a correctional facility, he said. - --- MAP posted-by: Larry Seguin