By DAVID HENCH, Portland Press Herald Writer   July 30, 2002

Jail administrators should be doing a better job of screening new prisoners for mental health problems that could lead to suicide, corrections officials and advocates for prisoners' rights said Monday.

The apparent suicide of a mentally ill Somerset County jail inmate over the weekend - the fifth prisoner suicide in Maine this year - illustrates the need to be more vigilant, the critics said. Most, if not all, of the prisoners had diagnosed mental illnesses.

"It could be a situation that is just coincidental, but I don't think so," said Brian Wallace, coordinator of the Prison Law Project for the Maine Civil Liberties Union. "I think they just don't know how to treat individuals like this, or don't treat them."

Joseph Hayes, 20, of Skowhegan was found hanged with a bedsheet Saturday afternoon, a week and a half after he was brought to jail on a charge of violating his probation. An autopsy Monday confirmed the cause of death, pending a blood test.

Hayes was last checked about an hour and a half before his body was found, said state police Sgt. James Urquhart.

State police are investigating the death to ensure no criminal conduct was involved, but the agency's report also could indicate whether there were lapses in the jail's handling of the case.

Investigators said they are aware of allegations that Hayes had indicated he might hurt himself, but they had not confirmed the report or determined whether corrections officers were alerted to the possibility.

Jail officials would not comment.

Wallace said the fact that Hayes was being treated for mental illness at Spring Harbor Hospital in South Portland just prior to his arrival at the jail should have been a red flag for jail officials that he needed special consideration.

"It's not necessarily a situation that Somerset County Jail didn't do what it's supposed to do, but in general the jails just do not have a system in place to take care of individuals with these needs," said Wallace, who has investigated other jail suicides.

The problem is a particular concern in Maine, which has a disproportionate number of mentally ill people in its jails and prisons.

Cumberland County Sheriff Mark Dion, president of the Maine Sheriff's Association, said corrections officers need to explore an inmate's mental health when the person is being screened as part of the admitting process.

"If anything, sheriffs have to become more and more aware of how liable they've become during that intake process," Dion said. "Sometimes there's no warning, but usually the person threatening suicide begins doing so during intake."

Dion said jails should have standardized procedures for evaluating inmates when they arrive. He has lobbied for other jails to become accredited as a way to achieve that consistency. So far, only the Cumberland County Jail has received national accreditation, though the state prison system also is working toward that goal.

"The families want to know, 'Did we take reasonable steps to assess their potential for suicide?' If we did, it's an unfortunate circumstance. If we didn't, then the organization has to change that procedure," Dion said. "The dignity of the community at large is determined by how well you treat people in custody."

Besides compassion for the victim and the family, jails and state prison facilities have to contend with liability if they do not act to prevent a person in their custody from taking their own life.

The family of Adam Dupuis, 25, of Portland, who hung himself while in the mental health unit at the Maine State Prison this spring, has filed a claim against the state for the maximum amount allowed - $400,000.

The claim charges the state with wrongful death and violating the constitutional prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment by withholding proper medical care.

The claim alleges that Dupuis was denied medication and was left by himself for an extended period of time even though he was supposed to be on suicide watch after at least one previous attempt.

He was found by fellow prisoners after he used his belt and shoelaces to hang himself, state officials have said.

"Somehow the oversight of the prisoners has gone by the wayside, it seems to me," said Patrick Mellor, the Portland lawyer representing Dupuis' family.

Wallace, of the Prison Law Project, said the tally of five inmate suicides in state or county facilities this year suggests there could be a systemic problem. And Hayes' death last weekend heightens that concern.

"It's almost certain (Hayes) didn't meet with a psychiatrist, was not on any medications, was not treated like an individual with an illness, and that's exactly what it is," Wallace said.

"It's a very depressing thing to be incarcerated in an institution, and that's magnified if you have mental illness. If they're in a situation where they're showing any sign of that (suicidal tendencies), they have to be monitored."

Source: http://www.pressherald.com/news/local/020730jaildeaths.shtml

BY TRISHA L. HOWARD  St. Louis Post-Dispatch  7/30/2002

Madison County Sheriff's Department officials said Tuesday that they did what they could to determine whether David Gargac was suicidal, even calling in a crisis intervention caseworker to evaluate him the day after he arrived at the jail.

Gargac, 38, hanged himself in his cell early Monday morning in the 30 minutes between routine checks, said Madison County Sheriff Bob Churchich. Gargac died at Anderson Hospital in Maryville about 13 hours after a guard discovered him hanging from his cell door, authorities said.

He had been held without bail at the jail since July 10, about 24 hours after Alton police arrested him at the end of an eight-hour standoff. He was wanted on charges in the shooting of Michael Bazzell, 25, of Granite City after a fight at a Granite City hotel on July 4.

Bazzell was released from a St. Louis hospital on July 11.

Based on Gargac's threats during the standoff that he would shoot himself, he was under a suicide watch between the time Alton police took him into custody about 11 p.m. July 8 and his transfer to the Madison County Jail about 10:30 p.m. on July 9, said Alton Deputy Chief Jody O'Guinn.

"Just due to the fact that we had a standoff with him and he said he was suicidal, we would have done a 10-minute watch on him until he left our jail," O'Guinn said.

When the Madison County Jail's head nurse asked Gargac on July 10 whether he was suicidal, he answered "no," Churchich said. Still, the head nurse decided to call a caseworker from Chestnut Health Systems for a second opinion, he said.

"The head nurse wanted that extra precaution, mainly because of the picture she had seen in the newspaper of him holding a gun to his head," Churchich said. "But there was no indication whatsoever of him contemplating taking his life."

The Illinois Department of Corrections requires that an inmate suspected of mental illness or suicidal tendencies be examined by a mental health professional, a spokesman said. Prisoners under suicide watch must be checked by a jail official every 15 minutes - twice as often as guards are required to check on other inmates.

But after interviewing Gargac, the caseworker for Chestnut Health Systems, which handles crisis intervention services in southern Madison County, reported that he presented a low risk for a suicide attempt, said sheriff's department Capt. Robert Hertz. Hertz said that Gargac had not given jail officials any reason to doubt that diagnosis during his 19-day stay.

Source: http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/news/stories.nsf/News/0C695A87D62C500E86256C07000BF632

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