PRISON MENTAL HEALTH WORKERS ON ALERT AFTER THIRD INMATE HANGING IN A MONTH

SALEM, Ore. (AP) -- Mental health workers are on alert after the body
of an inmate was found hanging from a bedsheet in a Pendleton prison
cell in the third apparent suicide the state prison system has seen in
the past month.

Solomon Abernathy, 21, was found about 2:30 a.m. Monday in a
disciplinary cell at the Eastern Oregon Correctional
Institution.

His death came one day after John Norris, 31, hanged himself with a
bedsheet in a disciplinary cell at the Oregon State Penitentiary in
Salem, officials said.

The string of suicides started Aug. 30, when Stanley Reger, 50, hanged
himself with a bedsheet in his general population cell at the Salem
penitentiary.

Three suicides in a year is about average in the Oregon prison system,
so three in a month has prison officials concerned.

"We're aware that suicides tend to occur in groupings," said Gary
Field, the Corrections Department's administrator of mental health
programs.

"We have our mental health case managers and staff on a particular
alert because once these start, they're sometimes hard to turn off,"
he said.

Oregon's juvenile corrections system was rocked late last year and
early this year when a series of hangings claimed the lives of four
teen-age inmates at the Hillcrest Youth Correctional Facility in Salem.

In response, the state's Legislative Emergency Board approved a $2
million package of suicide-prevention measures, including expanded
mental health evaluations and counseling for juvenile offenders.

The rash of suicides in the adult corrections system comes about two
years after officials launched a new mental health treatment system,
designed to detect and help increasing numbers of mentally ill inmates.

By official estimates, one of every 10 prisoners is afflicted with a
severe mental illness-- including schizophrenia, manic-depressive
illness and psychosis resulting from drug abuse. One of every four
penitentiary inmates takes psychiatric medication.

Under the revamped treatment system, mental health case managers track
inmates by visiting them in cells, hallways and prison recreation
yards. One goal of the tracking system was to detect psychotic or
suicidal inmates early.

Field, who investigates every prison suicide, said he had no reason to
link any of the three recent deaths.

Norris had served 11 years in prison for multiple Lane County robbery
convictions and for being a felon in possession of a weapon. His
projected release date was 2012. He reportedly left a suicide note.

Abernathy had been behind bars for less than a year. He was doing time
for Multnomah County convictions on robbery, assault and failure to
perform the duties of a driver. He also was not eligible for release
until 2012.

Checked-by: Patrick Henry