Judge had to call dentist himself so St. John’s inmate to get care

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A St. John’s man sentenced recently for a string of break-ins — including theft of laptops containing Children, Seniors and Social Development clients’ personal information from a government office — was granted double credit for pretrial custody because of the months of dental pain he endured at Her Majesty’s Penitentiary until a judge intervened.

Justin Murphy had been sent twice for a psychiatric assessment at the Waterford Hospital because his pain seemed to be impacting his ability to think. He was found fit for trial each time and returned to HMP, defence lawyer Kevin Baker said at Murphy’s sentencing hearing in provincial court recently.

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Judge Lori Marshall sentenced Murphy, who was arrested almost exactly a year ago, to 23 months’ time served.

In April, Murphy appeared before Newfoundland and Labrador Supreme Court Justice Vikas Khaladkar, reportedly attending court with a foam earplug lodged into a gaping hole in his tooth to try and relieve some of his pain.

Khaladkar called HMP officials directly from the courtroom to ask what was going on and request that Murphy be seen by a dentist right away.

“Your Honour, I don’t want to use hyperbole, but I’ve got to be honest with you; I’ve never seen this happen before,” Baker told the sentencing judge last week, of Khaldkar’s intervention.

Staffing and transportation issues had caused Murphy’s appointments to be continuously postponed, Baker said.

Two days after Khaladkar made that call, Murphy was back in court for an update and still hadn’t seen a dentist.

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This time, the judge called the dentist’s office himself, made an appointment for Murphy for that same day, and instructed sheriff’s officers to take him there.

His tooth was pulled, and his pain was relieved to the point where he could finally have a sensible conversation about how he wanted to deal with his criminal charges, Baker said, as he made an application for double remand credit for Murphy.

WHAT IS A DUNCAN APPLICATION AND HOW IS IT USED?

Called a Duncan application, an offender can ask the court to grant them extra credit on their sentence to compensate for unusually harsh prison conditions. It’s an application local courts have often granted for inmates at HMP, where issues like rodents, mould, broken toilets and a lack of programming exist.

“I’ve done these applications before, and I’ve stood in court and talked about the lack of facilities and the age of the facilities there; I mean, it goes back before the American Civil War, for God’s sake. As (Murphy’s) counsel, I would be remiss if I didn’t point out the level of the health concern and the inability to get redress for months,” Baker said.

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“He put himself there, obviously, by committing crimes, but the state’s obligation is to provide for an individual in that level of pain.”

Baker acknowledged that prosecutor Lesley Pike’s suggestion of a 23-month jail sentence for Murphy was reasonable, given his crimes and the circumstances.

Pike made no comment on the request for double credit, acknowledging that the situation that had caused the superior court to intervene was a concerning one.

THE CHARGES

Murphy pleaded guilty to more than a dozen charges related to break-ins at commercial buildings in St. John’s and Harbour Grace between April and June 2024. At the time, he was on probation after serving a sentence for similar and other crimes.

In the first incident, several businesses were accessed during a break-in at an office building on Torbay Road. Laptops, headphones, webcams and a projector were stolen, along with several blank cheques from anti-poverty, non-profit organization Food First NL.

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One of the cheques was subsequently written out to Murphy for $200, signed, and cashed.

Murphy later told police he had stood guard while an accomplice broke into the building. The man wrote Murphy’s name on the cheque and gave it to him, he said.

Exactly a month later, the Royal Newfoundland Constabulary was called back to the same building for another break-in. CCTV footage from inside an office captured Murphy as the culprit.

Murphy and a female accomplice were charged eight days later with an attempted break-in at a Lemarchant Road optician’s office. He told police he had tried to break in so he could sleep out of the rain.

On June 3, 2024, two iPhones and two laptops were stolen during a break-in at The Gathering Place on Military Road. The devices turned up at Traders pawn shop, and staff said Murphy had provided his ID when he brought them there. He was also still signed into the laptops when police retrieved them.

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THEFT FROM CHILDREN, SENIORS AND SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT OFFICE

The most serious of Murphy’s crimes, the Crown submitted, was a break-in at the Children, Seniors and Social Development (CSSD) office in Harbour Grace, during which six new laptops and six cellphones were stolen, along with the ID documents, a credit card and a bank card of an employee, and clients’ prescription drug cards.

A man called the RCMP to say Murphy had attempted to sell some of the devices to him, telling him they had been taken from the CSSD office and contained confidential information. Murphy also said he was planning to return to the building that night for more.

That evening, Mounties went to the building and watched Murphy show up with a woman, heard him tell her to keep watch, and saw him break in. They went inside and arrested him, and later recovered the stolen items from the woman’s home, where Murphy had been staying.

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“This is particularly egregious because it’s sensitive information about families, about children, as well as employees’ information that they thought was safe locked in a filing cabinet,” Pike argued in court.

“I think the sentence really needs to reflect the seriousness of the break and enter into (that) building.”

SENTENCING CONSIDERED DENTAL SITUATION

In sentencing Murphy, the judge noted his extensive criminal record and the unsophisticated nature of his crimes.

“It does appear, Mr. Murphy, it was inevitable that you were going to be caught,” she said.

She sentenced Murphy to 23 months in prison and granted his request for double jail credit, meaning he had already served the time.

“Generally, conditions at HMP are not good, but you had the added discomfort of a serious dental condition you did not get proper treatment for until Justice Khaladkar had to intervene,” Marshall continued.

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“The fact that you were unable to get to a dentist was a result of the staff and the facility being very overwhelmed.

“Fortunately, many of these applications have been granted by the court, and you’ve satisfied me that you are a person who should get double credit for the time you’ve spent in custody.”

DO INMATES AT HMP GET DENTAL CARE?

The province’s Department of Justice and Public Safety responded to The Telegram’s request for comment on the process by which inmates at HMP access health and dental care, saying NL Health Services is responsible for individual patient health care. A full team of health care and support personnel work on site, the spokeswoman said, to deliver timely access to services.

The health authority triages dental concerns and prioritizes dental appointments, and there’s a waitlist that prioritizes urgent cases, she said.

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An NL Health Services spokesperson said additional requests for services can be made if a person’s health status changes, and urgent medical cases go to the nearest hospital ER.

Dental care is provided by a contracted external provider — in some cases, the inmate’s own dentist.

“When an individual in custody reports a dental concern, they are assessed by health-care staff,” the spokeswoman wrote. “In most cases, this includes treatment for infections or pain management while they await an appointment with the dental provider.”

Operational delays and availability of staff for appointment escorts are issues that fall to the Justice Department, she wrote.

HOW BAD ARE STAFF SHORTAGES AT HMP?

Staff shortages at HMP have been an issue in recent years, with judges often hearing details of lengthy prison-wide lockdowns; inmates unable to access educational and rehabilitative programming, recreation time or visits with family members, and postponed medical and dental appointments.

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In 2024, it was common for the courts to hear from frustrated lawyers asking for postponements in their cases because they hadn’t been able to meet with their clients or even talk on the phone.

In February 2024, the Law Society of Newfoundland and Labrador wrote the province to say staffing issues at HMP could be causing violations of inmates’ protected rights by denying them timely access to counsel.

Correctional officers at the prison “would like to do more” to help the inmates there, but are at a loss, Trevor King, treasurer of the Newfoundland and Labrador Association of Public and Private Employees (NAPE), told The Telegram last August. NAPE represents correctional officers at HMP and other provincial facilities.

“They do care about the inmates,” King said. “That’s their job, and there are many officers who are very dedicated to their profession.”

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Extra efforts have been made in the past couple of years to recruit and retain correctional officers, including funding for more positions and seats for Newfoundland and Labrador residents in the correctional officer certificate program at the Atlantic Police Academy in P.E.I.

The first class of the department’s Correctional Officer Recruit Training Program has just graduated and are currently in on-the-job training, King said last week, calling for a strengthened focus on retaining them once they’re working.

“Without a retention strategy, we know these graduating classes will not stay in these challenging roles,” he said.

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