Recommendations made to ensure prisoner safety after accident in cell

A judge conducting an inquiry into the death of a man being held in the Blood headquarters in Standoff is in agreement with recommendations put forth by the Blood Tribe Police Service and Blood Tribe Emergency Medical Services. Judge Paul G. Pharo said that if video surveillance of Curtis Justice Mills’ fall in a jail cell had been viewed immediately, as recommended by the band’s police services and EMS following the incident, Mills may have received more appropriate treatment. Mills, who had been apprehended for intoxication, fell in his holding cell, striking his head on the concrete floor. He did not lose consciousness, was checked over by EMS and then monitored repeatedly during the course of the night. However, five hours after his fall, he was found dead in his cell bed. An autopsy attributed Mills death to a head trauma caused by an unprotected backwards fall. Pharo also recommended that the check carried out in 15-minute intervals by the guard or matron be a visual check through the cell door window to ensure signs of life instead of a monitor check. Pharo did acknowledge that both the BTPS and BTEMS are “comparatively small organizations which must operate in a rural setting, and have constraints on what resources are available.”