BURNABY, B.C. -- A B.C. coroner's jury has offered five recommendations aimed at making life behind bars a little safer.
The jury says mandatory single cells should be assigned to inmates serving time for multiple murders.
They also urge more discretion for wardens to bypass accommodation waitlists when deciding bunking arrangements for dangerous offenders.
The recommendations conclude an inquest into the November 2010 death of 33-year-old inmate Jeremy Phillips.
The Nova Scotia man was serving a six year aggravated assault sentence at the medium security Mountain Institution in Agassiz, east of Vancouver, when he was strangled in the cell he shared with six-time killer Michael Wayne McGray.
Lela Phillips, the victim's mother, testified that she is mystified about how staff could put her son in a cell with someone "so evil," and she believes the person who made the bunking decision should be fired.
