Family of prison suicide victim asks Delco for more oversight
Lawyer says woman was in solitary for 52 days before a guard told her to kill herself. An hour later she was found dead
MEDIA » The attorney and family of Janene Wallace, who committed suicide at the Delaware County prison two years ago, implored Delaware County Council on Wednesday to ensure safety for inmates who are grappling with mental illness.
“My hope is that this doesn’t happen again,” Susanne Wallace, Janene’s mother, said after the meeting. “My hope is that they oversee the prison so that the policies and procedures that are in place are actually followed. I mean, they had some policies and procedures in place but they weren’t followed. That was the problem.”
Janene Wallace was a 35 year old inmate who died at the facility on May 26, 2015 after being placed in solitary confinement for 52 days. She was there following a probation violation for traveling out of state. Her initial violation dated to 2013 conviction of terroristic threats to a woman over the phone.
Her family and her lawyer said Wallace struggled with mental illness from her teenage years, starting with anxiety and depression that grew into paranoia.
Earlier this month, the Wallaces settled a civil suit with Community Education Centers, the former private for-profit entity that ran the prison when Wallace was there, for $7 million. This year, CEC was purchased by GEO Group Inc., the company that now oversees the prison.
“Our goal today is to empower the county and to encourage the county if it continues to choose to outsource the incarceration at the George Hill Correctional Facility to a for-profit company to ensure that the private contractor provide a safe and humane incarceration, particularly for the mentally ill,” David K. Inscho, the attorney representing the Wallace family, said.
He identified three issues that arose over two years of discovery in the case.
“First there was during her two and a half months there, a complete failure to follow literally dozens of policies and procedures in the handling of this mentally ill woman,” Inscho said. “Second, there was apparently little or no oversight of these policy failures by the supervisors at the prison.
“And finally,” he continued, “is that there was a lack of a full investigation by the contractor.”
He recounted parts Wallace’s story.
He explained Janene suffered from severe mental illness that began as anxiety and depression in her teens and grew to paranoia in her 20s.
“Her mental illness is what got her in trouble with the law,” Inscho said. “She was convicted of having made terroristic threats which were driven by her paranoia against a woman she hardly knew.”
He said a county psychiatrist determined she had a severe mental health issue upon an evaluation completed at the prison in 2013.
“After being released, her paranoia drove her to flee around the country, fleeing from people she perceived were after her,” Inscho said.
This resulted in the probation violation that sent her back to prison in 2015. of
Inscho said the probation department wanted an updated psychological evaluation on Wallace and she refused once, which, he said, was the only attempt made to evaluate her in her two and a half months there.
“During that time, her mental health deteriorated,” he said, “and she was placed in solitary confinement.”
There, she lived in her cell for 23 out of 24 hours during the week and for 24 hours on the weekends, according to the attorney.
“There were numerous policies and procedures that were supposed to be followed to preserve the safety and security of people who were in solitary confinement like Janene,” Inscho said.
They included daily medical visits; re-evaluations every 48 hours as to whether a person should remain in solitary confinement and weekly evaluation by the supervisor; as well as a psychological evaluation after 30 days.
“None of those basic policies and procedures were followed,” Inscho said. “Not a single one.”
He painted a contrasting environment that Wallace dealt with up until her death.
“We learned through our investigation that there was a guard on duty that night who told Miss Wallace that she should go and kill herself,” Inscho said. County Council Charman Mario Civera sighed loudly in disgust.
“Following this we’ll call it an argument with the guard that Miss Wallace covered the window,” Inscho continued. “There was a failure to respond to this covered window and in fact, the guard that had told her to kill herself went to lunch.”
More than an hour later when the cell was opened, Wallace was found having hanged herself in the cell, he said.
He said the prison conducted an investigation and not once did officials mention that Wallace had been in solitary confinement for 52 days or that multiple inmates called out to the prison staff that a guard had told Wallace to kill herself.
“That investigation report leaves out those facts,” he said.
Inscho also pointed out a 2016 letter sent to the prison accrediting authority American Correctional Association in which prison officials reported there were two suicides in 2015 and said that they were handled compliant with all policies and procedures.
In addition, Inscho said a 25-year-old mentally ill woman was placed in solitary confinement for two weeks in 2011 and she also hung herself.
“No changes were made in response to that 2011 event,” he said. “Had appropriate changes been made in 2011 what happened to Janene wouldn’t have happened.”
The attorney asked council for full disclosure going forward, preferably independent, and oversight.
Civera said that request would be taken fully into consideration.
“Sure we’re going to make recommendations, absolutely, because we don’t want to see another incident like this happen again,” he said.
To the family, the council chairman said, “Your $7 million ... you deserve every penny of it, but I know it doesn’t replace your daughter. It doesn’t replace your daughter. We mean that sincerely.”
He said county council is not the only authority in relation to the prison. He mentioned CEC was in charge at the time and that the Board of Prison Inspectors with two members appointed by council and three members appointed by the courts.
Civera said a huge catalyst in creating the dynamics that led to this situation was the 1985 move from the state moving residents of state hospitals into private or community settings that he said are not adequately funded to care for these individuals.
“It all comes down to dollars and cents and it’s wrong,” he said. “It’s absolutely wrong. These people need to be cared for, they need to be taken care of.”
Inscho said about 700 of the 1,800 inmates at the county prison suffer with mental illness.
“The county is currently entrusting the care of these hundreds of individuals to a private, for-profit prison contractor at a great expense to the county,” he said. “The contract for the prison was budgeted in 2017 at $49 million.”
He said that is greater than 10 percent of the county budget and is a dime for every taxpayer dollar. In addition, he said $4.1 million a month will be paid to the prison contractor next year.
“This is the only privately run prison in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania,” Inscho said. “The prison is being run for profit and if it is going to be done with taxpayer dollars ... there needs to be oversight, there needs to be accountability.”