Melissa Chatzimanolakis had been hoping to have her brother out of jail and home by now.
Instead, the 29-year-old attended her sibling’s funeral earlier this month, days before he was set to have a bail review that could have seen him leave custody.
Anthony Chatzimanolakis, who was charged with vehicle theft and unlawful gun carrying, died of a suspected drug overdose at the Toronto South Detention Centre last month, his family said. He was supposed to have surgery while in custody to treat an old wound but that had been postponed.
His sister is now speaking out to learn more about what happened to him and draw attention to the challenges inmates might face accessing adequate health care behind bars.
“We were just waiting for him to come home. And he never got that opportunity,” Melissa Chatzimanolakis said in an interview.
“If no one speaks out … People are going to keep dying and people aren’t going to hear about it. It’s just going to keep happening.”
Anthony Chatzimanolakis, 30, was placed at the Toronto detention centre in September, his sister said. While there, a wound on his torso from a 2019 motorcycle accident began to rupture, causing his intestine to bulge in two places, she said.
He was set to have surgery in November but it was cancelled as the jail “could not facilitate the procedure,” the family’s lawyer said. Among preparations for his bail review was an argument on the importance of him being freed for surgery, his family said.
Melissa Chatzimanolakis said the family heard from inmates at the detention centre that her brother was allegedly “acknowledged but ignored while he was in medical distress.”
Anthony Chatzimanolakis was found unresponsive in his cell on March 25 and declared dead by suspected drug over dose after 40 minutes of CPR, his sister said.
A spokesperson for the Solicitor General confirmed that an inmate was found unresponsive at the Toronto South Detention Centre on March 25 but did not comment on why Chatzimanolakis’s surgery was cancelled or on his treatment at the detention centre.
“The ministry cannot provide further details as a number of investigations are underway,” Hunter Kell wrote in a statement.
Carmelo Truscello, the family’s lawyer, said the death highlights issues with getting inmates appropriate health care and attention from staff in jails.
“When tragedies like this occur it speaks to a larger systematic issue that is rooted in poor staffing,” he said in a written statement.
“More should be done in a proactive effort to ensure our institutions do not fail our citizens in pre-trial custody, where they are entitled to a presumption of innocence.”
Advocates say health care for inmates has been a longstanding concern.
Inmates do not get enough support when it comes to addressing drug use and there’s inadequate transfer of health records when those in custody are let out of jail, they argue.
Dr. Margaret Hulbert, a co-chair with the Health Providers Against Poverty advocacy group, said general health providers don’t have access to inmate health records, which means their prescriptions aren’t easily carried over once they are released.
“Individuals come to the emergency department because they’re in an acute medical or psychiatric crisis, and there’s a complete lack of information on them,” said Hulbert.
“One of the most fatal, egregious health-care outcomes out of jail is how often people overdose partly because you lose your tolerance to opioids so quickly.”
Hulbert said the responsibility for Ontario inmates’ health should be moved from the Solicitor General to the Ministry of Health.
“There can be a huge conflict of interest in managing a jail and managing healthcare,” she said.
Tracking (In)Justice, a data-tracking project by the Canadian Civil Liberties Association and several Ontario universities, said in a December report that the number of inmate deaths has been rising in recent years.
Fifteen inmates died in Ontario jails in 2010, 25 died in 2019 and 41 died in 2022, it said.
“While these numbers are alarming, they are unsurprising to those who have come in contact with Ontario’s jails and prisons,” Noa Mendelsohn, executive director of the Canadian Civil Liberties Association, wrote in a December letter to the Solicitor General.
Tracking (In)Justice also found Ontarians in custody awaiting a bail hearing are at greater risk of suicide or drug overdose compared to those sentenced, due to adjustment issues, substance withdrawal, disrupted relationships, isolation and uncertainty.
The CCLA has recommended the formation of a new provincial office that would monitor, announce and follow-up on inmate deaths.
It’s further called on Ontario to centralize data collection of in-custody deaths and make public all inquest findings on them. It’s also called for a coroner-led review process for all natural in-custody deaths and asked that reports on inmate deaths be shared as quickly as possible with family, the coroner’s office and relevant oversight bodies.
Melissa Chatzimanolakis is waiting for a coroner’s report on her brother’s death – which isn’t expected for six to nine months – and is still seeking an explanation on why his surgery was cancelled in November.
“No family should have to go through what my family is going through,” she said. “It happens a lot more often than people know.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 18, 2023.
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This story was produced with the financial assistance of the Meta and Canadian Press News Fellowship.
