Sarah Speight
PhD Student
Étudiante en doctorat
Sarah Speight (she/her) is a PhD student in geography, under the supervision of Dr. Eric Crighton, whose work examines coronial inquests into deaths in custody from a critical public health perspective. She is a research assistant for the carceral cultures research initiative and an editorial assistant at the Journal of Prisoners on Prisons – a prisoner written, academically oriented peer review journal. Sarah coordinates the Jail Accountability and Information Line, a hotline where people incarcerated at OCDC can file complaints and seek resources. Sarah is also a member of the criminalization and punishment education project, an organization that aims to raise awareness of the harms of criminalization and punishment.
Email / Courriel : sspei076[at]uottawa.ca
Research Project
Inquiring into Deaths in Custody: Inquest, Redress, and Injustice in Ontario
Sarah’s doctoral research examines the role of the Ontario Coroners Inquest in responding to deaths in provincial custody. In Ontario, inquests are physician-led public safety hearings which examine the circumstances of a death in order to prevent a similar occurrence in the future. Sarah’s dissertation examines the intersections of medicine and law in these proceedings, highlighting the tension between institutional interests and public health evidence. In doing so, she illuminates how the medico-legal decision-making about where inquests are able to look determines the risk regulatory recommendations resulting from these proceedings.