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| Suicides In Conn. Prisons On Rise, Data Show |
| By Hartford Courant |
| Published: 04/16/2003 |
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Bruce H. Brewster's family said prison officials should have known that he was a suicide risk. There were warning signs. He had tried to kill himself three times. He told other inmates he would commit suicide and they warned officers. He had a family history of suicide that included an aunt who jumped out of a 10th-floor window. On Sept. 26, 2001, Brewster hanged himself with a sheet in a cell at New Haven Correctional Center. In February, Brewster's family sued the state Department of Correction. The suit is one of four suicide complaints filed this year. Since January 2000, 16 inmates have taken their own lives in Connecticut state prisons. Three of the suicides named in the complaints have occurred since 2000. One was from 1997. James D. McGaughey, executive director of the state Office of Protection and Advocacy for People with Disabilities, said he is worried about more suicides because of the increasing number of people with mental illness being incarcerated. McGaughey's office has been trying to investigate the suicides of eight inmates, but correction officials have denied his office access to their records. McGaughey originally requested some of the files in autumn 2000. A U.S. District judge ruled earlier this month that correction officials must release the documents. McGaughey said he started his investigation because he is concerned that correction officials may need to improve staff training and its support and services for people with mental illness. 'It is a concern to us that these individuals were able to succeed in carrying out their suicide,' McGaughey said. Suicides also could cost taxpayers. Last March, the state paid the family of David Tracy $750,000 as part of a settlement. Tracy, who suffered from mental illness and had only months remaining on his sentence, hanged himself in prison. Correction officials declined to comment on the lawsuit, but say they try to prevent suicides. They note that after noticing a spike in the number of suicides in 2000, they made numerous systemic changes. The changes included altering cells to make them suicide resistant, improving staff training and the agency's identification and screening process for inmates. They also hired Lindsay Hayes, a national expert on suicide prevention in correctional institutions. And the agency enhanced its mortality review procedures, according to officials. From 1993 to 1999, the state's correction system averaged fewer than three suicides per year. In 2000, there were six. In 2001, there were four and in 2002, five. Hayes said it is difficult to compare Connecticut with the rest of the nation because, unlike most other states, Connecticut keeps pretrial and sentenced inmates in its prison system. He said pretrial inmates were at the greatest risk for suicide. Hayes said he believes that Connecticut and most other states will face increasing challenges to prevent suicides because of the nation's growing prison population and because of an increasing number of people with mental health problems being incarcerated. 'We're not keeping pace with mental health staff,' Hayes said, of prison systems in general. Hayes said he has been encouraged by many of the improvements within Connecticut's correctional system, particularly its mortality review procedures. 'You have to look at each of the suicides to see if any one of them were preventable,' said Hayes. 'That's what they are doing now.' |
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