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| Maine Legislative Committee Calls for Meeting About Jail Suicides |
| By Associated Press |
| Published: 08/19/2002 |
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A legislative committee in Maine is calling for a special meeting to explore the rash of suicides that have take the lives of five inmates this year. Members of the Criminal Justice Committee said they need to determine if new policies approved last year are being implemented and identify what else needs to be done. The committee spent much of last summer and the past session studying the treatment of the mentally ill in county jails and state prisons. Some of the resulting recommendations like offering a better array of psychotropic medications were adopted, though the Legislature only approved $65,000 in funding for a pilot program at a single county jail. Four county jail inmates and one state prisoner have killed themselves since April 8. All apparently suffered from mental illness. The committee requested the approval of legislative leaders to meet at the end of August or early September, but has been put off. Sen. Michael McAlevey, R-Waterboro, Senate chair of the committee, is disappointed with the delay. He said prisoners are often a low priority, particularly when funding is scarce. ''There's not much of a constituency for people in prison, but it's our responsibility,'' he said. ''We make the laws to put them there. We make the laws to keep them there and we have a responsibility to keep them as safe as possible.'' Carol Carothers, executive director of the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill of Maine, said a special committee meeting to study jail suicides might at least initiate a process that can lead to change in the next session. The committee could instruct prison and jail officials to gather data for future debates and policy decisions, she said. Inmates have killed themselves at the Kennebec County Jail, the Maine State Prison, and the Somerset County Jail, while two inmates killed hanged themselves at the Waldo County Jail. |
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