Families, activists question why so many people in Alaska’s jails and prisons have died this year

Early one morning this summer time, Nora Brown obtained a knock on her door in White Mountain, a small neighborhood close to Nome. It was a village public security officer letting her know that her 20-year-old daughter, Kitty Douglas, had died in jail. She had solely been there for six nights. 

It was a shock – they’d talked on the telephone lately, and Brown thought her daughter was secure at Hiland Mountain Correctional Middle after bouncing between an Anchorage youth shelter and homeless camps. 

Douglas is the youngest of 15 individuals to die in Alaska jails and prisons up to now this 12 months. 9 out of 15 had been beneath 40. The Alaska Division of Corrections hasn’t had this many deaths in a single calendar 12 months since 2015. 

It’s unclear what’s behind this 12 months’s excessive, and why seven individuals died inside two weeks of going into custody. The division hasn’t printed the causes of dying, except for 91-year-old James Patrick Wheeler. His dying in July was associated to COVID-19. 

The Division of Corrections’ screening course of, recordkeeping insurance policies and safety practices imply there must be plenty of documentation of what led as much as the opposite 14 deaths. However the division says it could’t disclose a lot; they’re restricted by confidentiality insurance policies and well being privateness legal guidelines. 

Members of the family and activists are sounding the alarm that these deaths are a disaster that wants particular consideration. 

Brown mentioned the VPSO who delivered the information in White Mountain didn’t know particularly what occurred to her daughter, Kitty Douglas, however she later came upon via the State Medical Examiner that it was a suicide. She’s realized little else from the authorities. 

“This was avoidable. I do know it,” Brown mentioned. 

In line with Brown, her daughter thought she was in hassle for shoplifting when she referred to as from jail. On-line courtroom information don’t checklist any costs in opposition to Kitty Douglas that may have led to her imprisonment on the time.

Brown mentioned her daughter had some identified psychological well being points, and may have been beneath shut watch. 

“‘I’d slightly die as an alternative of be in jail.’ That was a few of the issues she expressed to some individuals right here once they talked of jail,” Brown mentioned. “That was her set off thought. ‘I’d slightly die as an alternative of be in jail.’”

Brown mentioned she needs to file a wrongful dying case in opposition to the state. 

“I want to see them do their job, comply with their very own pointers, and do what they may do, finest they will,” Brown mentioned. “Particularly with those who they know are suicidal. … People who they know which have psychological sickness and issues.” 

A Division of Corrections spokesperson mentioned in an e mail that the division takes every dying significantly, and conducts its personal inside investigations, which embrace on the lookout for developments or underlying points. 

A federal report exhibits that traditionally, diseases are the main explanation for dying amongst Alaska’s inmates, adopted by suicide after which drug or alcohol intoxication. 

The corrections division says that it doesn’t suspect foul play in Kitty Douglas’ dying, or any of the others this 12 months.  

That doesn’t absolve the division of accountability, based on Megan Edge, director of the Alaska Jail Challenge for the American Civil Liberties Union of Alaska. 

“‘No foul play’ doesn’t imply that these individuals didn’t die by the hands of the system. That’s 15 individuals, a few of (whom) weren’t convicted of crimes, who weren’t sentenced,” she mentioned. “There are individuals who had been convicted however not sentenced to dying, dying by the hands of the system.” 

Edge mentioned her group hasn’t taken any authorized motion in opposition to the state, however it’s working with some households of inmates who’ve died this 12 months and neighborhood teams. She mentioned letters had been despatched to the administration final week asking the state to protect proof, reminiscent of jail video recordings, in anticipation of future litigation. 

The group can be calling on Gov. Mike Dunleavy’s administration to conduct a sweeping overview of the deaths and different prisoner circumstances. 

“It’s actually necessary that this investigation is completed by an impartial physique, not the state investigating itself,” Edge mentioned. “And that the findings of the overview are made public. That’s how we guarantee accountability and transparency.”

From there, she mentioned neighborhood leaders and policymakers can work on options. 

Some members of the family, like Nora Brown, have realized the fast explanation for their family members’ deaths by getting information from the State Medical Examiner’s workplace themselves. Subsequent of kin are entitled to these studies, however they often aren’t public. 

The corrections division spokesperson mentioned that many inmates come into the system with “preexisting, and in some instances, very sophisticated medical and psychological well being points.”

Edge mentioned that underscores why they shouldn’t be in a jail cell.

“That’s why they need to be being handled by medical professionals,” she mentioned. “That’s why they need to be in hospital, that’s why they need to be in remedy. You realize, the truth is, the Division of Corrections is just not staffed effectively sufficient or skilled effectively sufficient to triage this disaster.”

Edge mentioned that’s each an indictment of the jail system, and a name for change past it to handle contributing components like substance abuse, an absence of psychological well being care and the criminalization of poverty. 

A number of inmates who died had been solely going through misdemeanor costs. Courtroom information present {that a} legislation agency that serves as the general public defender for municipal crimes in Anchorage was representing a number of of them. 

Kitty Douglas is again house in White Mountain now, the place she was buried in July. 

Usually right now of 12 months, Nora Brown mentioned her daughter would have completed choosing berries for the season, had her silver salmon smoked and put away. She’d be climbing bushes to search out rabbits and ptarmigan to hunt, bear and moose to keep away from. 

“She would simply climb a tree … any tree she checked out. She would in all probability climb it proper in entrance of you simply to indicate you she might,” Brown mentioned. “She was simply actually, a very dangerous tomboy.”

Brown doesn’t have closure. Because the inmate dying toll has risen this 12 months, she wonders, why so many? 

In the event you’re in a disaster or know somebody experiencing one, you’ll be able to name 9-8-8 for confidential, skilled help.