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| Indiana Prisons Look for Answers Suicides |
| By Associated Press |
| Published: 02/06/2006 |
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The Indiana Department of Correction is taking steps to prevent inmate suicides after the deaths of three prisoners at state facilities this month. The department plans a daylong summit March 1 in Indianapolis to discuss ways to deter suicides and help those who witness them, said J. David Donahue, the state correction commissioner. Such deaths affect not only the deceased inmates and their families, but other offenders and prison staff who might have grown close to the inmates, Donahue said. "We try to promote community, academic opportunities, lots of relationships: We have neighbors, we have associates, we have friends," Donahue said. Prison staff who might have tried to prevent a suicide but ultimately were unable to can be particularly devastated, said Kellie Meyer, criminal justice director for the Indiana chapter of the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill, a partner in the summit. "Suddenly, we have a trauma for them that needs to be worked through," Meyer said. Three state inmates have committed suicide since Jan. 10, when death row inmate Charles E. Roche Jr., 42, was found hanging from a bed sheet at the Indiana State Prison. Roche left a note saying he was tired of the pressures of death row and objecting to new policies on inmates' correspondence. Stephen A. Johnson, 49, another inmate at the Michigan City prison, died the next day after choking himself with a sheet. Jerome Barker was found hanging in a utility closet at the Pendleton Correctional Facility, where he was serving a sentence for rape and criminal deviate conduct. The three suicides in 17 days compared with two for all of 2005 at state correction facilities, Donahue said. The state has not had more than five inmate suicides in a year since 1999, he said. The department houses approximately 24,000 adult and juveniles in 32 prisons, camps, juvenile facilities and work-release centers. Donahue visited the Michigan City and the Pendleton prisons after the suicides, and incident teams talked to prisoners and staff to "assess the emotional stability of the facility," he said. The keynote speaker for the summit is Frank Campbell, executive director of clinical research and consultation at the Crisis Center Foundation in Baton Rouge, La. Campbell is a national expert in counseling people after the suicides of others. |
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