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By DAVID WEISS dweiss@leader.net
Saturday, March 08, 2003 Page: 3A
WILKES-BARRE – Two inmates at the Luzerne Correctional Facility attempted
suicide within minutes of each other Friday morning. One succeeded.
Daniel Phillips, 41, of Wyoming, was found in his cell with a sheet around
his neck at 9:45 a.m. Officials tried resuscitating him, but he was pronounced
dead 20 minutes later, said Warden Gene Fischi.
At approximately the same time, a second inmate on a different floor, whose
name Fischi did not release, also tried to hang himself. Guards stormed his
cell and saved the man.
Phillips is the second inmate this week to kill himself at the county
prison.
Ricardo Clarke Edmund, 23, hanged himself in a cell in the prison’s
restricted unit Sunday night. Edmund, a native of Panama with an address of
Baltimore, was expected to be deported.
Fischi said only two people committed suicide at the prison last year and
added that guards stopped 15 to 20 suicide attempts.
Despite the recent attempts, Fischi said he’s not sure if prison officials
could take additional preventive steps to stop the suicides. Inmates are not
allowed shoe laces, guards make consistent checks on the cell blocks and all
incoming inmates are evaluated for any suicidal tendencies, Fischi said.
Fischi said guards also have been on heightened alert.
“I don’t know where to go to with that,” Fischi said. “We’re doing
everything we possibly can.”
He said the guards check each cell at least twice every hour. The only
guaranteed prevention would be to have one guard constantly in front of the
cells. But that would require an extreme amount of manpower and money, he
said.
Phillips was lodged at the prison on Feb. 26. He was awaiting a court
hearing before District Justice John Hopkins on charges of burglary, criminal
trespass and unauthorized use of a motor vehicle, Fischi said.
He had a cellmate, Fischi said, but the cellmate was in the yard at the
time. About 15 to 20 minutes passed since the last time Phillips was checked
before he was found, Fischi said.
Fischi said Phillips had no prior indications of suicide, but he had a
history of drug and alcohol use.
His suicide was the second this year and the fourth in the past six months,
Fischi said.
Kathy Wise, communications director of the Pennsylvania Prison Society,
said she believes prison suicides are a bigger problem at county prisons than
state facilities.
“Inmates are more unstable when they get to that point,” she said. “All
of the sudden, they’re in prison, they’re confused, they’re depressed.”
Wise also said the state’s Department of Corrections has recently increased
efforts to educate its staff on the warning signs of suicide.
Wise did not have statistics on prison suicides immediately available
Friday.
David Weiss, a Times Leader staff writer, can be reached at 831-7397.