By Taylor MacPherson

Penitentiary officials say deaths not connected

Jun 8, 2017 | 5:00 PM

Although three inmates have died in the span of two weeks at the Saskatchewan Penitentiary, officials said there is no reason to suspect the deaths are connected.

The first inmate to die, 30-year-old Curtis Robert Cozart, was found in his cell in the prison’s medium-security unit May 24 and was later pronounced dead in hospital. Cozart was serving a 28-month sentence for assault charges. On Wednesday morning convicted murderer Daniel James Tokarchuk, 44, was discovered by guards in distress in the private bedroom of the minimum-security house he shared with several other inmates. A third inmate, 37-year-old convicted robber Christopher Andrew Van Camp, died on the same day as Tokarchuk in the prison’s maximum-security range.

Lee Anne Skene, deputy warden at the Saskatchewan Penitentiary, said she has seen no information indicating a connection exists between the three deaths.

“We have absolutely no information that would lead us to believe that there is any connection at all,” Skene told paNOW.

The deaths occurred in different areas of the prison, Skene said, as all three inmates were housed under different security classifications. Although some have raised the possibility that the deadly opioid fentanyl may be to blame for the deaths, Skene dismissed the notion as “pure speculation.”

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“We don’t have all the information from the RCMP on their investigation, but there is nothing that would lead us to believe that it was a fentanyl issue at all,” she said.

RCMP officers are looking into the deaths of Tokarchuk and Van Camp, while investigators ruled Cozart’s death was a suicide, Skene said.

Darcy Begrand, media spokesperson for Correctional Service Canada, confirmed the three deceased inmates would not have had any contact with each other inside the penitentiary.

“Our medium, maximum and minimum units are very separate,” he said.

The prison’s medium- and maximum-security units are currently functioning normally, Begrand said, but the maximum-security range remains on lockdown following the death of Van Camp.

Although he could not comment on the circumstances of the deaths of Van Camp or Tokarchuk, citing the active investigations, Begrand said the facts of both cases will become public in due time.

“Everything will become very clear to the public and to the news media when the investigations are concluded,” he said.

Taylor.macpherson@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @TMacPhersonNews