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Inmate Suicides Still Under Investigation: Prison Officials Have Not Seen a Pattern in Two Suicides and Three Attempts Within Four Days

Posted on: Friday, 3 March 2006, 09:00 CST

By Leslie Parrilla, The Tribune, San Luis Obispo, Calif.

Mar. 3--Prison officials at the California Men's Colony say they're looking but haven't spotted a pattern in the recent suicides of two inmates and the attempts of three others.

All five incidents happened within a four-day period last month. The suicides are still being investigated.

The incidents at the facility west of San Luis Obispo come as California prisons have been under fire from critics. Last year, inmate suicides statewide rose to the peak levels they'd reached in 2003.

The national yearly average for suicides in prison is 14 per 100,000 inmates. Suicides in California prisons grew last year to 35, or 21 per 100,000 inmates, California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation spokeswoman Terry Thornton said.

The two CMC suicides account for about one-fourth of the total for the state so far this year, according to San Francisco attorney Jane Kahn, whose firm Rosen,

Bien and Asaro handles a variety of prison class-action cases.

A state official and a CMC psychiatrist are doing a standard probe into the suicides at the local facility.

Privacy laws protect mental health information about inmates, and CMC staff members have refused to discuss details of the incidents.

CMC spokesman Larry Vizard said changes could be made to the prison's policies and procedures if problems are found during the investigation.

However, Vizard added that he couldn't recall any changes resulting from past suicide investigations.

Mental health patients

About 1,700 of the 6,510 inmates at the prison are receiving mental health treatment, Vizard said. Nearly all of those inmates take some kind of psychiatric medication, prison mental health officials said. All five men who attempted or committed suicide this month were mental health patients.

The hanging deaths of inmates Charles Delauer and Jong Kim prompted prison officials to temporarily lock down the facility to talk with mental health inmates and inmate representatives from other units about a possible trend.

"When we went out there, we were trying to find out from the inmates: Is there anyone else out there having problems?" Vizard said. "If someone knows of someone having a problem, let us know so we can work them through the problem."

No additional suicides or attempts have been reported since the rash in February, Vizard said.

Last year, CMC had two suicides and about 20 attempts, according to Vizard.

The prison had three suicides in 2003, Kahn said.

About half of the inmate suicides Kahn has studied were committed by people receiving mental health services, she said.

Problem or anomaly

Some experts say a series of suicides and attempts, whether in the general population or among mental health patients, could indicate larger problems at a facility, or they could simply be an anomaly.

Lindsay Hayes, project director for the nonprofit National Center on Institutions and Alternatives, said a cluster of suicides and attempts may or may not be reason for concern. Hayes' organization works nationally for rehabilitation of inmates and offers counsel to inmates and defense attorneys.

"Sometimes it is an aberration and they have good policies and procedures in place," Hayes said of prisons. "Other times, I go in and it's not like that at all. There are some serious systemic problems."

Hayes was not speaking specifically about CMC.

Prematurely releasing inmates from suicide watch or precaution is one of the main factors contributing to prison suicides, he said.

But Vizard said neither of the inmates who committed suicide last month had done anything immediately before to indicate they were suicidal and needed to be watched.

Leslie Parrilla can be reached at 783-7645.

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Copyright (c) 2006, The Tribune, San Luis Obispo, Calif.

Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News.

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Source: The Tribune (San Luis Obispo, Calif.)

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