Top prison official slated to testify at Ashley Smith inquest today

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Ashley Smith is shown in an undated handout photo released at the inquest into her prison cell death, in Toronto, Wednesday, Feb.20, 2013. Canada\'s top prisons official is slated to take the stand today at the inquest into the in-custody death of Ashley Smith. Don Head, commissioner of Correctional Service of Canada, had secretly tried to have his subpoena set aside. THE CANADIAN PRESS/HO

TORONTO – Canada’s top prisons official is slated to take the stand today at the inquest into the in-custody death of Ashley Smith.

Don Head, commissioner of Correctional Service of Canada, had secretly tried to have his subpoena set aside.

He tried to argue he had no connection to the teen’s death.

However, the presiding coroner, Dr. John Carlisle, was having none of that.

As a result, Head is expected to answer questions about what he knew about Smith’s circumstances and what he did about them.

At the time Smith, 19, strangled herself in her segregation cell in Kitchener, Ont., in October 2007, Head was deputy commissioner.

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