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Prison suicide checks disputed
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Northumberland County Prison has a maximum-security cell where inmates considered to be a high suicide risk can be placed.
The basement cell is described by prison officials as being as suicide proof as possible, with no anchor points from which to hang bed sheets that could be used as a noose. In fact, an inmate under constant supervision in this cell, if deemed a suicide risk, is given a smock and blanket that are suicide-proof.
According to a deposition given by Warden Ralph Reish, this suicide prevention elements were available to Ryan Francis in March 2006, when he was jailed just days after an apartment fire in Trevorton killed five people, including his mother, half-brother and girlfriend.
But these measures weren’t deemed necessary for Francis.
“Well, it was determined that he didn’t need a cell with constant and continuous supervision. This was determined by the lieutenant, by myself, by the psychiatrist,” Reish said in a deposition taken Dec. 17, and released as evidence July 1 with the latest legal filings in a wrongful death lawsuit filed on behalf of Francis’ estate by his grandmother, Bonnie Francis.
“So that there was such a cell available; but there was a three part determination that it was not necessary to house him in such a cell?” asked Francis’ attorney, Wayne Schaible.
“That’s correct,” Reish replied.
Instead of constant supervision, Francis was placed on 15-minute interval checks, for which a corrections officer was supposed to check his cell quarterly each hour, and he was remanded to Cell 27 on the second floor of the prison’s right wing with another inmate.
“He was getting close monitoring,” said Reish.
“Once every 15 minutes?” Schaible asked.
“Yes,” the warden said.
“And in between those 15-minute checks, he was getting no monitoring at all?”
“Yes.”
“And you consider a check once every 15 minutes to be the equivalent of close monitoring of someone who is a significant suicidal risk?”
“Yes.”
The checks were erroneously lifted a day into Francis’ stay in jail and, one day later, while his cell mate was attending a court proceeding, and approximately 20 minutes after Francis was given medication by prison staff, he was found hanged from a bed sheet fashioned to a cell window.
New filing
Bonnie Francis filed the lawsuit in November 2006 against Reish, Northumberland County and multiple prison officials.
In the depositions taken since, the warden, prison psychiatrist, prison nurse and a lieutenant all have somewhat varying accounts of just what happened inside the walls of Northumberland County Prison (NCP) between March 7, the day Francis was admitted, and March 9, the day he died.
In these depositions, too, are glimpses inside the Klinikowski report — an independent review of the prison commissioned by the county in the weeks after the suicide that has since been sealed by the U.S. Middle District Court, Harrisburg.
The depositions are part of the July 1 filing, which was made by the attorney for Dr. Frederick Maue, the former prison psychiatrist who is named as a third-party defendant. Through the motion, he seeks to block the remaining defendants from amending their complaint against Maue to add a 14th Amendment claim, that he was “deliberately indifferent” in his care for Francis.
Maue steadfastly denies the allegation, and says the accusation is “patently unmeritorious” and is a violation of the court, legal documents read.
Meanwhile, a settlement conference in the case is slated for Aug. 5 before U.S. Magistrate Judge Malachy Mannion at the U.S. Courthouse in Wilkes-Barre.
‘Strict checks’
Based on comments made in the depositions, there appears to have been a significant breakdown in communication among prison officials leading up to Francis’ suicide. However, Reish, Deputy Warden John Conrad and Lt. James Bruce (shift commander when Francis was brought to prison) all maintain that Francis was not originally deemed in need of constant supervision, despite assertions by Maue to the contrary.
There was no internal review of the events that led to Francis’ death, and there was no discipline taken against any prison staff, Reish said in his deposition.
Reish and Bruce each stated in separate depositions that Francis was on “strict” quarter-hour checks. After consulting with Maue, each said he agreed to the checks, with the warden claiming Maue did not believe constant monitoring was necessary.
“I personally asked Dr. Maue if he wanted him on constant and continuous or 15 minute, strict 15, strict four, and he said, ‘No, 15 minute watch is satisfactory,’” Reish said.
Not so, according to Maue’s deposition. He said he recommended a strict suicide watch for Francis, but that recommendation wasn’t put in writing, not specifically anyway.
While he didn’t indicate in print on his psychiatric examination just how high a suicide threat Francis was — admitting in his deposition this was a mistake, and saying Francis was as highly suicidal as anyone he’d encountered — he claimed to have discussed his elevated concern of Francis’ mental state with Bruce, and left the prison under the assumption Francis would be within eyesight of a corrections officer at all times. He said 15-minute intervals were never discussed.
“I informed the warden he needed to be under close supervision. He was at high suicide risk; and to ensure this was done. I wanted reassurance from the warden this was going to be done,” Maue said in his deposition of a conversation he held with Reish on March 8, a conversation Reish remembers differently.
“And what was his response?” asked attorney Schaible.
“It was a positive response. He said they were doing to do whatever they could to try to observe him and keep him from committing suicide and try to get him into a hospital,” Maue said.
But any elevated concern and any talk of constant monitoring never occurred between the psychiatrist and shift command before Maue left the prison on the night March 7, Bruce said.
Other information documented in writing on Francis’ state of mind:
• Francis gave nine affirmative answers on a suicide questionnaire indicating suicide risk, though he denied wanting to harm himself.
• On a lieutenant’s log sheet, “suicide” watch was not documented, though the word “strict” was handwritten, reportedly calling for 15-minute checks done at all times, no exceptions.
• An intake form reads that Francis be remanded to regular quarters with no special provisions. Bruce initialed this form, admitting an error in not noting the “strict” checks on the sheet. However, he said the command was given verbally to his staff, and that he did the same for the incoming shift.
• Classification/programming note, signed by Deputy Warden Conrad, has a box marked “mental health” as an area of concern. This box was not checked off; only “drugs” and “age” were.
• Prison nurse Patti Wojcik said she couldn’t recall reviewing Maue’s evaluation. She said she’d never been told Francis was on suicide watch, hadn’t been briefed on any possible concerns by any shift commander, and didn’t review a 2005 medical chart from a previous incarceration indicating he was a suicide risk at that time. She actually reviewed the suicide questionnaire with Francis during a medical screening March 8, she said, but said she believed he was on checks as routine protocol for all new inmates. There was nothing written otherwise, she said.
Wojcik said in her deposition that, during her face-to-face with Francis, he didn’t appear to be a threat to himself; that he denied having thoughts of suicide. “... Because he was laughing and he was doing okay. He was playing cards. There was no signs that he was going to hurt himself,” she said.
Wojcik said she has a psychiatric background in her profession, but that was achieved after Francis’ death. She said she’d never been trained that serenity exhibited by someone who had previously shown suicidal tendencies was a bad sign, and that could mean they’ve decided to follow through with killing themselves, as Schaible asserted.
By noon March 8, less than 24 hours after he was jailed, Francis wasn’t being continuously watched, and he wasn’t on 15-minute checks. He’d been removed from watch by Wojcik and corrections officer Ryan Wheary, Wojcik said.
But if she was aware he was on “suicide checks” specifically, “Then I wouldn’t have taken him off,” Wojcik said in her deposition.
The basement cell is described by prison officials as being as suicide proof as possible, with no anchor points from which to hang bed sheets that could be used as a noose. In fact, an inmate under constant supervision in this cell, if deemed a suicide risk, is given a smock and blanket that are suicide-proof.
According to a deposition given by Warden Ralph Reish, this suicide prevention elements were available to Ryan Francis in March 2006, when he was jailed just days after an apartment fire in Trevorton killed five people, including his mother, half-brother and girlfriend.
But these measures weren’t deemed necessary for Francis.
“Well, it was determined that he didn’t need a cell with constant and continuous supervision. This was determined by the lieutenant, by myself, by the psychiatrist,” Reish said in a deposition taken Dec. 17, and released as evidence July 1 with the latest legal filings in a wrongful death lawsuit filed on behalf of Francis’ estate by his grandmother, Bonnie Francis.
“So that there was such a cell available; but there was a three part determination that it was not necessary to house him in such a cell?” asked Francis’ attorney, Wayne Schaible.
“That’s correct,” Reish replied.
Instead of constant supervision, Francis was placed on 15-minute interval checks, for which a corrections officer was supposed to check his cell quarterly each hour, and he was remanded to Cell 27 on the second floor of the prison’s right wing with another inmate.
“He was getting close monitoring,” said Reish.
“Once every 15 minutes?” Schaible asked.
“Yes,” the warden said.
“And in between those 15-minute checks, he was getting no monitoring at all?”
“Yes.”
“And you consider a check once every 15 minutes to be the equivalent of close monitoring of someone who is a significant suicidal risk?”
“Yes.”
The checks were erroneously lifted a day into Francis’ stay in jail and, one day later, while his cell mate was attending a court proceeding, and approximately 20 minutes after Francis was given medication by prison staff, he was found hanged from a bed sheet fashioned to a cell window.
New filing
Bonnie Francis filed the lawsuit in November 2006 against Reish, Northumberland County and multiple prison officials.
In the depositions taken since, the warden, prison psychiatrist, prison nurse and a lieutenant all have somewhat varying accounts of just what happened inside the walls of Northumberland County Prison (NCP) between March 7, the day Francis was admitted, and March 9, the day he died.
In these depositions, too, are glimpses inside the Klinikowski report — an independent review of the prison commissioned by the county in the weeks after the suicide that has since been sealed by the U.S. Middle District Court, Harrisburg.
The depositions are part of the July 1 filing, which was made by the attorney for Dr. Frederick Maue, the former prison psychiatrist who is named as a third-party defendant. Through the motion, he seeks to block the remaining defendants from amending their complaint against Maue to add a 14th Amendment claim, that he was “deliberately indifferent” in his care for Francis.
Maue steadfastly denies the allegation, and says the accusation is “patently unmeritorious” and is a violation of the court, legal documents read.
Meanwhile, a settlement conference in the case is slated for Aug. 5 before U.S. Magistrate Judge Malachy Mannion at the U.S. Courthouse in Wilkes-Barre.
‘Strict checks’
Based on comments made in the depositions, there appears to have been a significant breakdown in communication among prison officials leading up to Francis’ suicide. However, Reish, Deputy Warden John Conrad and Lt. James Bruce (shift commander when Francis was brought to prison) all maintain that Francis was not originally deemed in need of constant supervision, despite assertions by Maue to the contrary.
There was no internal review of the events that led to Francis’ death, and there was no discipline taken against any prison staff, Reish said in his deposition.
Reish and Bruce each stated in separate depositions that Francis was on “strict” quarter-hour checks. After consulting with Maue, each said he agreed to the checks, with the warden claiming Maue did not believe constant monitoring was necessary.
“I personally asked Dr. Maue if he wanted him on constant and continuous or 15 minute, strict 15, strict four, and he said, ‘No, 15 minute watch is satisfactory,’” Reish said.
Not so, according to Maue’s deposition. He said he recommended a strict suicide watch for Francis, but that recommendation wasn’t put in writing, not specifically anyway.
While he didn’t indicate in print on his psychiatric examination just how high a suicide threat Francis was — admitting in his deposition this was a mistake, and saying Francis was as highly suicidal as anyone he’d encountered — he claimed to have discussed his elevated concern of Francis’ mental state with Bruce, and left the prison under the assumption Francis would be within eyesight of a corrections officer at all times. He said 15-minute intervals were never discussed.
“I informed the warden he needed to be under close supervision. He was at high suicide risk; and to ensure this was done. I wanted reassurance from the warden this was going to be done,” Maue said in his deposition of a conversation he held with Reish on March 8, a conversation Reish remembers differently.
“And what was his response?” asked attorney Schaible.
“It was a positive response. He said they were doing to do whatever they could to try to observe him and keep him from committing suicide and try to get him into a hospital,” Maue said.
But any elevated concern and any talk of constant monitoring never occurred between the psychiatrist and shift command before Maue left the prison on the night March 7, Bruce said.
Other information documented in writing on Francis’ state of mind:
• Francis gave nine affirmative answers on a suicide questionnaire indicating suicide risk, though he denied wanting to harm himself.
• On a lieutenant’s log sheet, “suicide” watch was not documented, though the word “strict” was handwritten, reportedly calling for 15-minute checks done at all times, no exceptions.
• An intake form reads that Francis be remanded to regular quarters with no special provisions. Bruce initialed this form, admitting an error in not noting the “strict” checks on the sheet. However, he said the command was given verbally to his staff, and that he did the same for the incoming shift.
• Classification/programming note, signed by Deputy Warden Conrad, has a box marked “mental health” as an area of concern. This box was not checked off; only “drugs” and “age” were.
• Prison nurse Patti Wojcik said she couldn’t recall reviewing Maue’s evaluation. She said she’d never been told Francis was on suicide watch, hadn’t been briefed on any possible concerns by any shift commander, and didn’t review a 2005 medical chart from a previous incarceration indicating he was a suicide risk at that time. She actually reviewed the suicide questionnaire with Francis during a medical screening March 8, she said, but said she believed he was on checks as routine protocol for all new inmates. There was nothing written otherwise, she said.
Wojcik said in her deposition that, during her face-to-face with Francis, he didn’t appear to be a threat to himself; that he denied having thoughts of suicide. “... Because he was laughing and he was doing okay. He was playing cards. There was no signs that he was going to hurt himself,” she said.
Wojcik said she has a psychiatric background in her profession, but that was achieved after Francis’ death. She said she’d never been trained that serenity exhibited by someone who had previously shown suicidal tendencies was a bad sign, and that could mean they’ve decided to follow through with killing themselves, as Schaible asserted.
By noon March 8, less than 24 hours after he was jailed, Francis wasn’t being continuously watched, and he wasn’t on 15-minute checks. He’d been removed from watch by Wojcik and corrections officer Ryan Wheary, Wojcik said.
But if she was aware he was on “suicide checks” specifically, “Then I wouldn’t have taken him off,” Wojcik said in her deposition.
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Reader Comments
The following are comments from the readers. In no way do they represent the view of The News-Item.
Louise wrote on Jul 17, 2008 6:26 PM:
" I, for one, would like to know who the source is for this article. Seems to me that there is a big leak at the North'd County Courthouse.
Whoever this source is, he/she should be identified.
It also occurs to me that the county and all those involved in this have just dug themselves a deep grave. "
Whoever this source is, he/she should be identified.
It also occurs to me that the county and all those involved in this have just dug themselves a deep grave. "
