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| Corrections official takes responsibility for prison suicides |
| By Associated Press |
| Published: 11/15/2004 |
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The director of Iowa's prison system said he will act quickly to address the problem of suicides at the Iowa State Penitentiary in Fort Madison. Department of Corrections Director Gary Maynard told the board which oversees prison operations on Nov. 5 that he accepts responsibility for the suicides and pledged to find a way to stop them. Four inmates with psychiatric disorders have killed themselves in the past 21 months in the Clinical Care Unit of the prison. Maynard said he has asked the Washington, D.C.-based National Institute of Corrections to send a prison mental health consultant to Fort Madison. The consultant will examine staffing levels and the unit's operations. The unit, which houses about 150 mentally ill inmates, was built in response to a federal lawsuit that challenged living conditions for mentally ill prisoners at Fort Madison. It opened two years ago at a cost of about $26 million. Three of the four suicides in the unit have occurred since Maynard became Iowa's top prison official in March 2003. The latest suicide occurred Nov. 1 when inmate Nathan Watson, 24, of Oxford Junction died of suffocation after he tied a piece of plastic around his face, an autopsy showed. "The question comes up...who is responsible? Whose fault is it? There is no question about it. The responsibility for carrying out the mission is mine," Maynard told the Iowa Board of Corrections. He said the responsibility is shared by the prison warden on down through the ranks of every employee who works in the Clinical Care Unit. Suellen Overton, chairwoman of the state corrections board, said she was satisfied that Maynard was doing everything possible to investigate the deaths and to prevent future suicides. |
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