In all the attention on the Toronto (Don) Jail and the recent spate of violence there - two killings and a serious assault, all upon inmates - no one has mentioned poor Jason Walters.
Mr. Walters was a notorious member of the notorious Malvern Crew street gang which has from time to time been at war with another notorious Scarborough street gang, the Galloway Boys or G-Way, three of whose charming members were just last summer convicted of first-degree murder in the March 3, 2004, drive-by shooting of one perfectly nice man (Brenton Charlton) and attempted murder in the wounding of another (Leonard Bell).
The three, members of a G-way subset called the Throwbacks, had been on what was known as a "ride," meaning they would jump in the car and scoot over to Malvern turf, looking for people to shoot. They picked Mr. Charlton and Mr. Bell, respectively 31 and 48 and both hard-working and law-abiding men, because the trio of Tyshan Riley, Phillip Atkins and Jason Wisdom are not just criminals, but also criminally stupid.
In any case, on Nov. 16, 2008, Mr. Walters was arrested, with another Malvern Crew member, by Toronto police; they were found with a 9mm handgun in their car, and were in breach of numerous other court orders. Mr. Walters's lawyers admit he has an extensive criminal record.
Into the hoosegow they went.
Three days later, Mr. Walters was attacked by unidentified assailants at the Don and nearly beaten to death.
When he arrived at St. Michael's Hospital downtown, his score on the Glasgow Coma Scale, considered one of the best instruments of measuring unconsciousness due to traumatic brain injury, was a whopping three, or about the score that might be awarded a chair. He was dreadfully hurt - aside from the obvious injury to his brain, he had multiple fractures and damage to his spine.
Now 27, Mr. Walters remains in a rehabilitation facility, under guard, in poor condition physically and cognitively, though he has made some slight improvement recently.
Anticipating that his injuries will mean he needs lifelong care, his young common-law wife, mother and half-brother are now suing the province (the Don is a provincial facility) and the Toronto Police Services Board for about $12-million, alleging that they collectively failed to protect Mr. Walters from the Galloway Boys members who were in the Don at the same time.
No charges have ever been laid in the attack on Mr. Walters.
What is clear from the statements of defence filed by Ontario and the police is that the authorities were aware that Mr. Walters was a member of the Malvern Crew, but disavow any knowledge of the "precise nature of the relationship and of the precise risk," and that though the government admits it has a duty of care to inmates, its policy and the layout of the Don itself "requires that gang members are distributed relatively evenly throughout the various general population areas of the prison."
According to the defence documents, the jail asks all incoming prisoners if they fear for their safety, and if they don't speak up, they are placed within the general population. "This is the policy for gang and non-gang members alike," the documents say.
The policy "is to place the onus on individual prisoners to bring forward their own safety concerns. This can be done through an ombudsman, through other prisoners, or through direct conversation with a correctional officer.
"Once safety concerns are expressed, there is immediate segregation of the inmate to ensure their safety," the statements say.
According to the government, when Mr. Walters was asked if he had any concerns, "he provided no indication of either his gang affiliation or any concern for his safety… At all material times, there were dozens of different gangs represented by dozens of inmates at the Toronto jail. By necessity and design, members of different gangs are routinely placed within the same setting, and without incident."
The documents say that Mr. Walters "voluntarily assumed all of the risks and consequences of being a member of a violent street gang and states that from Jason Walters' factual and legal position, one such foreseeable consequence is violent assault and injury."
The statements of defence even suggest that Mr. Walters may have brought the attack on himself, by "antagonizing the inmate(s) who assaulted" him or starting a fight.
It appears the government is trying to have it every which way: On one hand, it says the Crown "has no knowledge of who committed the attack" and on the other, accuses Mr. Walters of provoking it; in one breath, it says it knew about his gang affiliation, but in the next remarks that he didn't mention it; its reasonable steps to protect gang members appear to rely entirely upon the gang-bangers themselves, by definition a stupidly macho lot, to self-disclose.
This young man was no upstanding citizen, and there's a measure of truth that as a gang member, he had immersed himself in a violent world. But he's paid a terrible price for that, and in a place which, even if archaic and overcrowded, should have been safer than the streets of Scarborough.