As N.S. jail death toll mounts, father grieves son and calls for corrections reform – Halifax [Video]

A memorial plaque with a laser-etched image of Christopher Young wearing a Santa hat sits on a shelf at his father’s Halifax home.

“That’s how I’ll always remember my son, as a happy guy,” said Gerry Young, 61.

However, the grieving parent said his 33-year-old son’s suicide on April 26 — the fifth of six deaths in Nova Scotia jails in the past 18 months — should be remembered as an example of how the provincial corrections system is failing to protect inmates’ lives.

“I guarantee you this could have been prevented,” he said during a recent interview in his home. Young said his son had tried and failed to kill himself years ago at the Central Nova Scotia Correctional Facility — commonly known as Burnside jail, where five of the deaths have occurred. Staff at the facility should have been on alert for a repeat attempt to hang himself, …