The mother of Ashley Smith, a teen who committed suicide in a federal prison while correctional guards watched on, vowed to keep pushing the government until "faceless" jail officials were held accountable.

During a news conference Wednesday morning, Coralee Smith fought to keep her voice steady as she told reporters she wants the names of the guards who watched her 19-year-old daughter strangle herself to death.

She said she was outraged at a recent report into the death that found the guards did nothing to help the girl because of specific orders from their supervisors not to intervene if the teen attempted suicide.

"As a family we think Ashley died because no one in Canada cares. No one," Smith said fighting back tears. "Not the guards who watched her asphyxiate, not the people who gave the orders, not the bureaucrats who knew our daughter needed help but did nothing but transfer her 17 times in 11 months."

Ashley, a troubled teen from Moncton, N.B. who was assessed by child psychologists several times in her youth, and was in constant trouble with the law.

When she was 13, she was sent to a New Brunswick psychiatric facility after she started shoving people on the street. She was sent home after 21 days of the 30-day evaluation because staff couldn't handle her, Coralee Smith said.

Two years later, Ashley got into trouble for throwing crabapples at a postal worker. Her mother said when she went to visit her in custody, she noticed several scars along her forearm from various suicide attempts. She said Ashley never tried to hurt herself before she was placed in custody.

When she was 16, Ashley was released but was arrested again a short time later for stealing a CD and pulling a fire alarm. She returned to a youth facility but after assaulting several guards, she was transferred to Ontario Grand Valley Institution, a federal prison, when she was 18.

In the 12 months that she was incarcerated, she continued to attempt suicide several times before finally succeeding on Oct. 19, 2007.

Ashley's death 'preventable'

Howard Sapers, Correctional Investigator of Canada, publicly released a report on Tuesday of his investigation into the matter. His report concluded that Ashley's death was "preventable" and that senior officials violated laws in regards to how the teen was treated while she was imprisoned. The violations include, "inappropriate use of institutional transfers, administrative segregation, and interventions involving force," the report says.

He told reporters on Tuesday that Smith had tied ligatures around her neck on several occasions prior to her death and staff had been successful in negotiating with her to remove it or forcibly removing it themselves.

According to court transcripts, seven guards watched as Smith choked herself to death because they had been instructed not to intervene.

"When staff finally did remove the ligature they exited the cell without providing any sort of medical intervention and then subsequently went back into the cell a second time where they began attempts to preserve life," Sapers said at yesterday's news conference. 

"Eventually paramedics showed up, transported Ashley to an outside hospital, where she was pronounced dead."

Sapers concluded in the report that her death marked a "disturbing and well-documented pattern of deaths in custody" and was indicative of the "lack of coordination and cohesiveness  among federal, provincial and territorial mental health and correctional systems."

Minister urged to act

At Wednesday's news conference, the family's lawyer Julian Falconer read a letter the Smiths have written to Peter Van Loan, Canada's public safety minister, appealing for him to identify the public officials who broke the law by letting Ashley die.

"The family is requesting you direct the correctional investigator to complete his work," he read from the letter. "Currently all we know is that a group of faceless bureaucrats violated the law and let Ashley Smith die alone in utterly deplorable circumstances.

"It makes a mockery of public accountability to identify law breaking but fail to identify the lawbreakers," he said.

Mark Holland, an Ontario MP who serves as the Opposition Critic for public safety, said it's imperative that an action plan be put into place to prevent a similar tragedy from occurring.

He said the minister's response to the matter has been "inadequate."

"It's imperative that there be an immediate action plan and specific dates be put into place to deal with what has been some very long-standing issues," he said.

He quoted the report's findings that Ashley's death was partly the result of "ill-functioning and under resourced correctional and mental health systems."

He said the government has worked to improve the laws around punishment but have fallen short on  implementing a strategy that would deal with prevention, particularly with people who suffer from mental disorders.

"It was through mistake after mistake after mistake that (Ashley's) death eventually resulted. It's something that should have never been allowed to occur," he told reporters at the news conference.

Coralee Smith said her family spoke to Ashley days before she killed herself but that her daughter almost never spoke of the conditions of her confinement.

She commended Sapers for his "splendid report" but repeated the family's request that the government name the people that were investigated in her daughter's death.

"We are heartbroken," she said. "I promise Canadians that I won't stop looking for answers until we can be sure that this won't happen again to a youth in this country."