Officials working to prevent suicides in Maine jails

BANGOR – The suicide Wednesday of a Southwest Harbor woman marked the fourth such death at Penobscot County Jail since 2002, and the first involving a woman inmate.

Michelle Mills, 38, died in her jail cell after hanging herself with a bedsheet, Penobscot County Sheriff Glenn Ross confirmed Wednesday during a news conference at the jailhouse. Hers was the 44th suicide attempt since 2002.

Mills’ suicide was unusual in that she was a woman, Ross said. Just 10 years ago, he said, the jail housed one or two women at a given time. Today, the number has increased to about 40, or about one in every four of the jail’s average population of 182, he said.

Steven Sherrets, criminal justice mental health manager with the Maine Department of Health and Human Services, said Wednesday that he cannot recall the last time a female prison or jail inmate committed suicide in Maine. Over the past 18 months, he has studied 10 years of data about inmate suicides and inmate suicide attempts in the state.

“Female suicides are dramatically more rare in the jails” than male suicides, he said.

Sherrets has been working with county jails throughout Maine to standardize the procedures and even definitions they use in screening inmates for suicidal and mental health issues. Many jails historically have approached the issue in different ways, but all have agreed to abide by a uniform system that Sherrets is helping to develop, he said.

In a 16-page report released last month, Sherrets indicated that building a new jail would be the best way to reduce the number of inmate suicides in Penobscot County – a recommendation that county officials said is too expensive to happen anytime soon. Sherrets said, however, that he knows of no one in Maine who has gone to greater pains to address the issue of inmate mental health than Ross and his jail administrators. He characterized their efforts to reduce the number of suicides at the jail as “heroic.”

Though female inmate suicides are rare compared with those of male inmates, the screening process for each inmate should be the same, according to Sherrets, rather than predetermined by gender, ethnic or other criteria.

The screening process also should extend beyond the booking process when an inmate is first incarcerated, Sherrets said, because about half the number of inmates who commit suicide or try to do so have been incarcerated for extended periods of time.

He recommends that jail cooks, corrections officers and administrators all be involved in keeping an eye out for signs of mental strain on inmates. There are myriad, complex factors that contribute to inmate suicide, he said, including legal sentencing, medical problems, physical activity, family issues and each inmate’s history. Often the rate of inmate suicide reflects the level of suicide in the area where the inmates come from, he said.

On Wednesday, Ross attributed the ongoing suicide problem to a combination of factors, chief among them cutbacks in mental health services and the increasing abuse of drugs.

“We know that county jails are the default mental institutions of the state of Maine,” Ross said.

Chris Loureiro, a shift supervisor at Waldo County Jail in Belfast, agrees.

“The mental health system is stressed and when that’s stressed, it’s like a domino effect,” he said.

According to Ross, the suicide attempts continue despite extraordinary efforts to prevent them.

In recent years, the Bangor jail has:

. Improved intake procedures in an effort to better identify inmates who may have risk factors for suicide.

. Provided crisis intervention training for guards and other staff, who also have been training to watch for mood or personality changes.

. Implemented protocols requiring frequent inmate checks, suicide watches for those with risk factors and extreme suicide watch for inmates with elevated risk factors.

. Developed a coalition of mental health providers, increased mental health services with Acadia Hospital and established a board of visitors to review policy issues.

. Purchased smocks and blankets made from material that cannot be used to form a noose.

. Asked Sherrets to review all suicides committed at the Bangor facility.

Waldo County Jail in Belfast, which had two suicides in 2002, has taken similar steps, Loureiro said.

Other county jails, however, have not experienced such sharp increases in suicides or suicide attempts.

. Kennebec County Jail in Augusta had one suicide in April 2002, the first in at least 15 years, and at least two attempts since then.

. Piscataquis County Jail in Dover-Foxcroft had one suicide in April 2006, its first in more than 30 years.

. Somerset County Jail in Skowhegan had one suicide in July 2002.