Jail inmate endshis hunger strikewith sandwich

BANGOR – County jail inmate James Emerson ordered up a peanut butter sandwich late Saturday night, bringing to an end a four-week hunger strike he said was an effort to take his own life. On Sunday morning, he had eggs and toast, some canned pears and two glasses of juice.

Penny Emerson of Bangor, the inmate’s mother, said Sunday she was “very happy” with her son’s decision to resume eating. She had visited him at the jail Saturday evening, she said.

“I told him he was starting to look pretty bad and that I was afraid he’d do permanent damage to his health,” she said. “He said it was no longer his mission to kill himself and that he would ask for a sandwich after I left.”

Penobscot County Sheriff Glen Ross said Sunday that the 23-year-old Emerson had given no specific reason for his change of heart.

Emerson’s decision to eat effectively ends the immediate controversy over whether he should be allowed to commit suicide in jail by starvation and dehydration, Ross said. But the conflict between an inmate’s right to privacy and the sheriff’s legal obligation to protect the life and health of inmates in his care remains.

“We were fortunate that in this case the courts gave us some relief,” Ross said, referring to a Superior Court ruling in late October that Emerson could be forced to take intravenous nourishment if he persisted in his slow-motion suicide attempt. Local hospitals resisted the order, however, saying they were legally and ethically bound to respect the patient’s wishes unless he was found mentally incompetent or incapable of making his wishes known.

Emerson’s attorney, Dale Thistle of Newport, sought to have the order overturned on the grounds that forced feeding would constitute a violation of his client’s right to privacy, but on Friday of last week, Judge Andrew Mead denied the motion. Emerson likely would have been taken to Eastern Maine Medical Center early this week, though the hospital had not indicated any change in its position on the matter.

Emerson, who already has served about four years in state prison for armed robbery, was one of five people charged with a burglary in Corinth on April 27 of this year. In addition to the new burglary and theft charges, Emerson is expected to waive indictment and plead guilty to two federal counts of being a felon in possession of a firearm and two counts of being in possession of stolen firearms. He faces eight years or more behind bars on the combined state and federal charges.

Early in October, Emerson stopped eating and drinking and told his attorney he would rather die than serve another prison term. Although he took occasional sips of water and juice, he refused all food and lost more than 25 pounds.

Penobscot County Jail chaplain Bob Carlson emphasized Sunday that Emerson’s hunger strike was a serious attempt to end his life.

“He wasn’t using the strike to be manipulative or to get special favors,” he said.

Carlson said younger inmates often find the prospect of a lengthy prison sentence intolerable, especially if they’ve served time in the past as Emerson has.

“There can be a real sense of hopelessness – you go to prison, you get out, you have trouble getting a job, you get into a vicious cycle of despair,” the minister pointed out. “When someone is discharged from the hospital, they go to a nursing rehabilitation program, they have home services, there’s all kinds of support while they get well.

“For inmates, there’s no aftercare. The support systems just aren’t there.”

James Emerson’s mother agreed. Her son, she said, feels very hopeless about his future. After he was released from Maine State Prison in April, she noted, it was only a matter of weeks before he had lost his job and resumed criminal behaviors.

Penny Emerson said people trying to rebuild their lives after serving a prison term need all the help they can get.

“They need employment services, guidance, a place to stay while they get headed in the right direction,” she said. “The way it is now, they just get thrown out on the street again. They could just as well get thrown into the middle of the Pacific Ocean.”