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| Mother: Jail Officials Disregarded Warning Before Son's Suicide |
| By Associated Press |
| Published: 01/03/2003 |
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The mother of a 24-year-old inmate from Maine who committed suicide this week at the Kennebec County Jail says officials disregarded her warning that her son had threatened to kill himself. Hours after Tammy Norton spoke with officials at the jail, a corrections officer found the body of Jason Rozell slumped against his maximum security cell door with a bed sheet wrapped around his neck. Sheriff Everett Flannery said Rozell apparently twisted the sheet around his neck and choked himself. Norton said she pleaded with authorities to contact the Kennebec Somerset Crisis Response Service, a nonprofit organization that provides 24-hour mental health and substance abuse crisis intervention service. ''I believe he died senselessly because nobody would listen to me,'' she said. ''They refused him medical treatment to see a doctor. It's an outrage because a 24-year-old is dead because they wouldn't listen to his mother, who knows him better than anybody.'' Flannery confirmed that Norton had called the jail about her son's mental condition and said a corrections officer and a psychiatric nurse spoke with Rozell following the call. ''We saw no signs of suicide,'' Flannery said. ''He even entered a verbal contract with the on-duty sergeant and said if he had concerns about suicide he would let (the sergeant) know. He told (the sergeant) that his mother overreacts and he wouldn't do anything like that.'' Norton said she spoke with her son the night before he killed himself. ''He told me he was going to kill himself and that he tried it the night before,'' Norton said. ''His girlfriend went to see him for a visit and she saw the marks on his neck. They were as plain as day. They had to see the marks.'' Flannery said Rozell was a heroin addict who was arrested by an Augusta police officer last month for operating under the influence. He was being held at the jail on a charge of violating probation on a conviction of possession of a firearm by a felon. ''Because of his history, he was locked up under maximum security,'' Flannery said. ''When he came here, he brought heroin into the jail.'' Flannery said the last suicide at the jail was at least 15 years ago. ''It's a tragedy,'' he said of Rozell's death. ''We feel for the mother and the kid. The corrections officers are devastated by this.'' Augusta police and the Kennebec County Sheriff's Department are investigating the death. |
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