ASPC-Yuma officer suicides.

...maybe these aren't the kinds of jobs these prison towns should be wishing for their kids to grow into. The rate of suicide among corrections officers is reportedly higher than that of regular cops...

Our condolences to Dale's friends, family, and colleagues; suicide is a devastating way to leave.

--------from the Yuma Sun------

Correction officer's death believed to be suicide

August 29, 2011 12:04 PM

BY JAMES GILBERT - SUN STAFF WRITER

A 52-year-old corrections officer at the Arizona State Prison Complex-Yuma died in an apparent suicide last week at the prison.

The corrections officer, now identified as Dale Thomas, fatally shot himself at about 10 p.m. Wednesday night, at the complex's parking lot shortly after his shift began, according to Barrett Marson, media relations administrator for ADOC.

Thomas, who was working the overnight shift that night, was a 12-year veteran of the job, having entered service with the Department of Corrections back in September of 1999.

The Arizona State Prison Complex - Yuma is located on the corner of Avenue B and Juan Sanchez Boulevard, east of San Luis.

Marson said the incident is under investigation.

Thomas is not the first corrections officer from ASPC-Yuma to have committed suicide while on the job.

In January of 2007 a male corrections officer died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound at the firing range during weapons training.

James Gilbert can be reached at jgilbert@yumasun.com or 539-6854.

Despair Behind Bars: Suicide in Arizona Prisons

Today being International Suicide Prevention Day, I thought it would be a good time to remember both the victims and survivors of the kind of despair that drives one to take one's life. For some reason, Arizonans are much more prone to suicide than most of the rest of the country. As reported by the Arizona Republic last year:

"Arizona perennially finishes in the top 10 nationally for suicides per capita, according to the National Center for Health Statistics, part of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In 2007, 986 Arizonans died by suicide, twice the number of those who were murdered, according to Magellan. The rate of suicide was 15.9 per 100,000 people; in New York, the rate was 6.9 per 100,000.

Among people with serious mental illnesses, the risk of suicide is roughly six times higher than for people who have not been diagnosed, according to academic research..."

Considering that suicides in this state far outnumber homicides, one has to wonder why we allow life-saving mental health services to be cut each year while we busy ourselves with feeding increasing numbers of people - and public funds - to the criminal justice system.

Because of the nature of my blogs, my focus here has been on prisoners. My Arizona Prison Watch archives are not exhaustive of all prisoner suicides in the state over the past 15 months, but I believe I have accessed all those who were reported by the AZ Department of Corrections. They are as follows:

23 y.o. Lasasha Cherry (9/08/10) ASPC-Perryville/Lumley

28 y.o. Patrick Lee Ross (8/31/10) Great Plains Correctional Facility, OK (Cornell under contract with AZ)

28 y.o. Geshell Fernandez (7/23/10) ASPC-Perryville/Lumley

26 y.o. Anthony Lester (7/12/10) ASPC-Tucson/Manzanita

29 y.o. Robert Medina (7/11/10) ASPC-Eyman/Browning

17 y.o. Jerry Kulp (5/11/10) ASPC-Tucson/Minors' Unit

46 y.o. James Adams (3/14/10) ASPC-Eyman/Browning (Death Row)

28 y.o. Jesus Cota (1/10/10) ASPC-Eyman/Special Management Unit

47 y.o. Monte McCarty (12/26/09) ASPC-Eyman/Special Management Unit

18 y.o. Hernan Cuevas (10/10/09) ASPC-Phoenix, Baker Unit

32 y.o. William Englebert (8/22/09) ASPC-Tucson

30 y.o. Erick Cervantes (8/14/09) ASPC-Eyman/Special Management Unit


33 y.o. Dung Ung (6/25/09) ASPC-Lewis

37 y.o. Caesar Bojorquez (6/28/09) ASPC-Eyman/Browning


Another tragic loss this year was the life of 17-year old Presley Austin, who killed himself at the Arizona Department of Juvenile Corrections' Adobe Mountain School in Phoenix in May. By accounts of other kids there, Presley was bullied to death within a week of being placed in a unit with more violent youth after he was in a fight on the mental health unit. His was the first suicide at the AzDJC in seven years.

My condolences to all those loved ones left behind in the wake of these tragedies.

Prior to Marcia Powell's death in May, 2009, notices of inmate deaths were seldom posted at the ADC news site. Now they seem to be pretty consistently updated, regardless of cause of death, which I give Director Charles Ryan some credit for - as far as I know, they don't have to do that.

The high number of prisoner suicides is disturbing, however, and should be investigated more closely, if the ADC hasn't already done so - especially those in the Special Management Unit, where I believe there is a higher concentration of prisoners with mental illness held in solitary confinement. At Perryville, both of the women who suicided were on the maximum security unit, where prisoners with serious mental illness are also frequently held. Theoretically, while it may be a higher-risk population, the environments should be better controlled and the staff should have some specialized training.

The national average for suicides in prisons is 14/100,000. The Arizona Department of Corrections warehouses about 40,000 prisoners at any given time, with about 20,000 new ones replacing those departing each year.

There are several good resources on suicide in jails/prisons in the side column of Arizona Prison Watch. I'd also recommend the following posts/articles, for those interested:
Mentally Ill Offenders Strain Juvenile System

Man's Death in Private Immigration Jail Bares Difficulty of Detention Overhaul

Suicide Among Incarcerated Veterans

The other way we tend to die in custody

Top Ten Places to Suicide: Arizona.

(this post includes a link to a moving slide show of quilt panels made to memorialize suicide victims in Arizona)

Real Lives Loved and Lost: "Criminals" and Suicide.

SOS: Suicide in Massachusetts state prisons.

Teen Kills Himself After Being Put in Solitary for…Trying to Kill Himself

Illinois Youth Prisons See More Suicide Attempts


I should also note that corrections officers themselves are also at increased risk for suicide - far higher than that of prisoners. Two that I know of occurred over the course of the past 15 months. The first was an officer at Perryville prison for women, who shot himself on the prison grounds - along the perimeter - not long after Marcia Powell was killed. The second was a youth corrections officer at Adobe Mountain School in May, the same week Presley died. I'm sure there were more, however, and that all left heartbreak in their wake.

I know far less about the above officer's suicides than I do about the prisoners I've covered, but my condolences go out to their families, friends and colleagues as well. I have also survived the suicide of a loved one - my ex-partner, who was also my friend and colleague through the many years I worked with people who were homeless in Michigan. He sat down in front of a train. Losing him - particularly that way - was devastating to our entire community. I imagine the officers' deaths hit their respective communities hard as well.

This post is for those still here and struggling to survive. Don't give up hope, no matter where you are or where you're heading. Even in prison there is always a role you can play to make this a better world - and we need all the help we can get these days.

May 2010 at Adobe Mountain: PHX New Times

Sorry folks: this is from almost two weeks ago. I've been caught up in my own personal and family crises since the night of the 19th; unless someone was covering this for me, we didn't post this from the New Times - Amy Silverman does pretty good work. 

I'll look for follow-up, and post updated info on the ADJC as soon as I can. I probably won't come in for a landing myself until sometime next week. Once I'm settled, I'll be more on top of things again.

 Folks particularly interested in Juvenile Corrections should check out Juvenile Prison Watch - it's new, can use some more research and development; we'd love to have a few family members work collectively on maintaining it. Contact myself or the International Prison Watch staff listed on their websites for more info.

- Peg

------------------------

Arizona Department of Juvenile Corrections Death Was Suicide, Inside Sources Say

By Amy Silverman,

Wednesday, May. 26 2010 @ 12:19PM

Staff at Adobe Mountain School in Phoenix are reporting that the death of a youth yesterday was a suicide.


And they wonder if the incident is tied to the "hush, hush" suicide earlier this month of a corrections officer from the same facility.


The boy was found in his cell at the Arizona Department of Juvenile Corrections' Adobe Mountain at 6:30 am May 25, according to Laura Dillingham, spokeswoman for the department.



She would not reveal any other details. Next of kin has not been contacted yet, she said, adding that an investigation is under way by the Department of Public Safety, the Maricopa County Attorney's Office and the Department of Juvenile Corrections.

Dillingham refused to respond to questions regarding whether the incident was possibly a suicide.

Two current employees of Adobe Mountain and one former employee of ADJC have contacted New Times to say the boy likely took his own life.

According to the employees, one of whom works on the unit Crossroads, where the boy was living at the time, the boy was found with a plastic bag tied over his head and a blanket over that. He was reportedly dead for quite some time when the morning shift staff found him.

Dillingham said department policy calls for welfare checks every 15 minutes through the night, and said the checks were, in fact, done in this situation. She said the childrens' faces cannot be kept covered, raising questions about whether the checks were done correctly.

She also said that Adobe Mountain School is fully staffed. Employees strongly disagreed.
Until very recently, the employees said, the boy had been placed at Triumph, the mental-health unit at Adobe Mountain, where he'd been for at least a year. The Crossroads employee said the boy was moved to Crossroads -- Adobe's unit reserved for violent kids -- after he was involved in an assault.

The employee said it was well known that the boy had "suicidal ideations" and added that the boy reportedly told the school superintendent recently that he wanted to be moved from Crossroads and would "do something" if he was not. The employee said that Crossroads staff wasn't informed of that conversation until after the boy had died.

Within the last several days, a youth corrections officer at Adobe Mountain took his own life.

Dillingham confirmed this but refused to release details. She said the staff and kids have been receiving counseling since the officer's suicide, but employees said the event has been kept "hush, hush" and there has been no counseling, though word has gotten out. They also say that ADJC director Michael Branham came to the facility and told them not to fly the flags at half-staff, saying the man did not die honorably.

It is unknown whether that suicide led to the possible suicide yesterday, but experts stress the importance of providing immediate counseling in such situations. ADJC's statements emphasize the counseling they are providing in the wake of yesterday's youth death. The statements do not mention the older man's death.

In 2002 and 2003, there were three suicides at Adobe Mountain School. The suicides, along with an investigative series by Phoenix New Times, led to a federal investigation into conditions at the agency's facilities, including Adobe Mountain. Last year, New Times published a story about continuing problems -- including mental health issues -- at ADJC.