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| Jails work to curb inmate suicides |
| By Scott Daugherty |
| Published: 04/20/2009 |
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County jail officials don't want a repeat of last year. After five years without a suicide, three people killed themselves in 2008 inside the Jennifer Road Detention Center in Parole. "There wasn't a person in this facility who wasn't deeply troubled by those suicides," said Superintendent Robin Harting, who heads the county's detention facilities. That, she said, is why she enlisted the help of the National Institute of Corrections last July to figure out how to better identify suicidal inmates and hopefully protect them from themselves. And, she added, that's why her staff has spent the past three months implementing almost two dozen expert recommendations at the county's detention center outside Annapolis, which houses up to 635 inmates, most of whom are awaiting trial. The staff has changed how they screen new inmates at booking, removed towel bars from all cells, and stopped leaving inmates alone in their cells, to name a few changes that already have been implemented. "We are committed to doing everything possible," Harting said. Family members questioned the county's ability to protect inmates shortly after the first two suicides. But last week, after learning of the independent review, one of those family members praised the county's efforts. "I think it's a wonderful thing that the county is making changes," said Delray Richardson, a platinum-selling songwriter and rapper whose brother, Monteray Arkell Hastey, killed himself Jan. 4, 2008, inside a cell off a public-intake dormitory. "Change is a good thing when applied correctly." Signs of change It's hard to say if the changes - many of which started to take effect in January and none of which have cost taxpayers any extra money - are working, since jailhouse suicides are relative anomalies in Anne Arundel County. There are indications of progress, though. Cerise Vablais, the jail's new director of mental health services, said she has seen nurses place more inmates on suicide watch in the past few months. "People are going out of their way to be extra cautious," she said. The recent rash of jail suicides also seems to have ended. The last such incident happened six months ago, when Andrew Ballou, 30, of Severna Park, hanged himself with a pair of pants Oct. 8 in a private intake cell. Hastey, 37, of Annapolis, committed suicide Jan. 4, 2008, and Tyrell Dominique Taylor, 31, of Glen Burnie, killed himself July 26. Both used sheets to hang themselves while they were alone in their respective intake cells. Terry Kokolis, the Jennifer Road Detention Center administrator, said jail staff screened each inmate for suicidal tendencies and cleared each for the jail's general population. Harting said after each suicide she believed her staff was doing a good job screening inmates. A nurse usually questions new inmates about their physical and mental health within four hours of being booked into the detention facility, even though the Maryland Commission on Correctional Standards gives them 24 hours, she said. After the second suicide, however, Harting decided to ask the National Institute of Corrections to conduct an independent - and free - review of their suicide-prevention policies. Before that review could take place, Ballou killed himself. Judith F. Cox, an expert on mental health policies as they relate to local jails, spent Oct. 29 and 30 at the Jennifer Road facility interviewing 28 administrators, correctional officers and health-care providers. In the end, she made 23 recommendations on how they could do things better, but still gave the county high marks. "I didn't see anything that was way out of whack," she said last week. "I felt very comfortable in that jail ... very safe." Read more. If link has expired, check the website of the article's original news source. |
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