Another suspected drug overdose at Barton Street jail

There has been another suspected drug overdose death at Hamilton’s Barton Street Jail.

Back in May, we brought you extensive coverage on an inquest into the deaths of 8 inmates at the jail, which concluded with a number of recommendations to prevent future drug-related deaths.

This latest death happened on Friday afternoon at the Detention Centre, 53 year old Christopher Sharp dead of a suspected drug overdose.

His family was told about his death around 10:30 Friday night. They are waiting for toxicology results but were told that guards did rounds at 2 pm. 20 minutes later, Sharp was found in distress.

The inquest into those 8 drug related deaths gave us a look at some of what happens inside the Barton Jail. Videos of inmates doing drugs off a table in the middle of the day out in the open, drugs being passed from cell to cell using fishing lines, and that drugs are readily available and that the smell of pot and crack cocaine is common.

8 deaths that happened in a 6 year period were examined in the inquest earlier this year, but a number of others have died since, with other inquests pending.

The jury came up with more than 60 recommendations to try to prevent these deaths, including things like real time video monitoring, better searches, and only two inmates per cell. We have been inquiring over the last several months if any of those changes have been made and as far as we know there haven’t been any yet.