Alarming Tape Recordings of Guards Heard at Smith Inquest

This article was last updated on April 16, 2022

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The coroner’s inquest into the prison death of Moncton, N.B., teenager Ashley Smith heard several disturbing tape recordings on Wednesday. The tapes were recorded in the voice of then-deputy warden of the Grand Valley Institution, Joanna Pauline, who was caught saying that it was a good thing guards did not go into Smith’s cell to prevent her from choking herself and asks a staff member to change her report about an incident.

19-year-old Smith passed away in October 2007, when she tied a piece of cloth around her neck, and even though the guards witnessed the act from outside her cell door, they did not respond. According to already presented witnesses, Pauline was one of the several senior managers who had ordered the staff to not intervene whenever Smith ties ligatures around her neck, as long as the troubled teenager was still breathing.

As many as three recordings were played during the inquest on Wednesday, while Pauline sat calm in the witness box. The first recording was of a phone call from a guard asking permission to enter Smith’s cell while reporting that she was asleep with a piece of cloth around her leg, though Pauline replied that the guard shall not go in. In the second call, Pauline instructs the staff members to change her report because it will alarm headquarters that an inmate was left for 12 hours with a ligature around her neck. Later, the guard agrees and can be heard  typing up a new report with the help of Pauline.

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