By Kyle Wind
The Times-Tribune
SCRANTON, Pa. — Lackawanna County Prison inmates are helping fill in gaps between correctional officer patrols to ensure their fellow prisoners do not commit suicide.
Commissioner Patrick O’Malley proposed the “tier walker” system as another prevention measure after three inmates took their own lives between June and October 2014.
The facility had success with the approach during another rash of suicides while he was a correctional officer, the commissioner said.
“It’s another set of eyes,” Mr. O’Malley said.
The county jail launched the program about two months ago, with 78 inmates participating for a $3 daily stipend, Warden Robert McMillan said.
“They walk around to the other cells and make sure everybody is OK. It’s just a little peer assistance,” Mr. McMillan said. “If somebody is walking around, it gives them someone to talk to if they’re in the cell alone. ... It occupies their time.”
The move is the latest among a series of measures the facility took to prevent further suicides since last year, including increasing the number of surveillance cameras around the facility.
Having more surveillance cameras allows correctional officers to simultaneously monitor four inmates who are on constant watches instead of just one and to better observe new arrivals, all of whom undergo mental health assessments.
The recent arrivals tend to be the most volatile inmates — particularly because prisoners who struggle with drug addiction have not detoxed yet, Mr. McMillan said.
Although it has been about 14 months since the prison’s last suicide, the facility continues to struggle with the same underlying problems — drug addiction and mental illness among inmates.
Correctional officers restrained inmates for their own safety or the safety of jail staff 45 times since December 2014, according to the prison’s extraordinary-incidence reports.
During a particularly difficult span early in 2015, Officer Anthony Mariano prevented an inmate from hanging himself with a sheet on March 20; less than a week later, Officer Daniel McGovern stopped another inmate from hanging himself with his smock March 24.
“Both officers discovered the inmates trying to harm themselves, called for assistance and immediately acted to help the inmates,” Assistant Warden David Langan said.
Across the facility, 205 of about 957 inmates — more than one in five prisoners — in November received psychiatric services, according to Mr. McMillan’s most recent report to the prison board.
“It’s like that everywhere,” Mr. McMillan said. “You have to remember, county prisons are becoming the mental health hospitals. As they close more and more mental health hospitals, a large percentage of them end up in the prison system.”
Copyright 2016 The Times-Tribune