Pubdate: Wed, 29 Dec 1999 Source: Toronto Sun (CN ON) Copyright: 1999, Canoe Limited Partnership. Contact: http://www.canoe.ca/TorontoSun/ Forum: http://www.canoe.ca/Chat/newsgroups.html Author: Alan Cairns PRISON REGIME KILLED EX-CON? Grieving brother: A heroin-addicted bank robber who died of a methadone overdose a week after being released from Kingston Penitentiary "never had a chance," his grieving family said yesterday. Fighting a heroin addiction that his family says began after he first went to prison years ago, Chris Melanson overdosed on the injectable withdrawal drug on Christmas night -- his 40th birthday -- and died the next day. Prior to cremating his dead brother, Dave Melanson told The Toronto Sun yesterday Chris was "dumped" out of Kingston Penitentiary a week before Christmas after spending weeks alone in an isolated segregation cell. "He went into prison years ago as a bank robber and came out as a heroin addict," Melanson said. "I want answers ... All I know is that I have a dead brother." Melanson said his brother went to sleep on the family couch on Christmas night. He didn't stir when family members tried to rouse him at 2 p.m. on Boxing Day. That night he was removed from life support at a local hospital. The coroner's office investigates all methadone deaths. The family later learned he'd taken at least two hits of methadone from his wife's supply for the Christmas holidays. Chris had married her while in prison. Melanson said his brother did a six-year prison stint for a string of robberies in the mid-1980s. In 1991, he got another seven years for a series of bank robberies. "A lot of guys become addicts just trying to cope with the situation," Melanson said. "Prison's not the nice place that people would have you believe." - --- MAP posted-by: Derek Rea