Canadian Journal of Law and Society / Revue Canadienne Droit et Société, 2017, Volume 32, no. 2, pp. 157–164. doi:10.1017/cls.2017.10 Introduction: Law, Vulnerability, and Segregation: What Have We Learned from Ashley Smith’s Carceral Death? Rebecca Bromwich and Jennifer M. Kilty Introduction Ashley Smith’s 2007 carceral death encountered widespread media attention. As time passed and the news cycle moved on to other fascinations, the details of her case started to fade from public discussion. As 2017 marks the ten-year anniversary of Smith’s death, we felt it was time to re-examine and refect upon diferent facets of the case. In the interests of clarity and for ease of reference, in the following pages we present a summary of some of the commonly understood and widely accepted facts of the case. Some of these commonly accepted “truths” are not unproblematic, as is discussed throughout the various entries in this special issue. We present these “facts of the case” to help ground the analyses and critiques presented in the manuscripts ofered in this issue. 1 Case Summary Ashley Smith was a middle class, white, Canadian teen girl who died from self- strangulation in an adult federal prison on October 19, 2007, at the age of nineteen. Smith was born January 29, 1988, in the province of New Brunswick and was adopted at fve days old. It is widely reported that she experienced a “normal” childhood in Moncton, New Brunswick. During her early adolescence, Ashley started to get into trouble with various authorities and questions were raised about her mental health. Smith’s parents report that at age thirteen or fourteen they saw distinct behavioural changes in their daughter. By age ffeen she had been before juvenile court fourteen times for various minor ofences such as trespassing and causing a disturbance. In March 2002, Smith was assessed by a psychologist, who found no 1 Tis summary draws heavily on that set out in Rebecca Bromwich, Looking for Ashley: Re-Reading What the Smith Case Reveals about the Governance of Girls, Mothers and Families in Canada (Toronto: Demeter Press, 2015). See especially pages 6–9. Bromwich’s book, and this summary, also draw on facts set forward in Smith (Re), 2013 CanLII 92762 (ON OCCO), Chief Coroner of Ontario, Inquest Touching the Death of Ashley Smith: Jury Verdict and Recommendations, December 2013, online: http://www.caefs.ca/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/A.S.-Inquest-Jury- Verdict-and-Recommendations1.pdf; as well as New Brunswick Ombudsman and Child and Youth Advocate, Ashley Smith: A Report of the New Brunswick Ombudsman and Child and Youth Advocate on the Services Provided to a Youth Involved in the Youth Criminal Justice System by Bernard Richard (Fredericton: Ofce of the Ombudsman and Child and Youth Advocate, June 2008), http://www.cyanb.ca/images/AshleySmith-e.pdf, accessed June 1, 2015; and Correctional Investigator of Canada, “A Legacy of Missed Opportunities: Te Case of Ashley Smith” by Howard Sapers (Edmonton: Ofce of the Correctional Investigator, 2011), online http://www.oci-bec. gc.ca/cnt/comm/sp-all/sp-all20111123-eng.aspx, accessed June 1, 2015. Core terms of use, available at https://www.cambridge.org/core/terms. https://doi.org/10.1017/cls.2017.10 Downloaded from https://www.cambridge.org/core. IP address: 168.151.117.126, on 24 Sep 2017 at 01:34:15, subject to the Cambridge