Ombuds investigation shows suicide warning signs missed at Washington State prisons Sydney Kurle | May 10, 2021
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This report is the continuation of a 2019 investigation, which showed the Washington State Department of Corrections (DOC) had a 250% increase in suicides from 2018 to 2019. In 2019, five of the 37 deaths were suicide, whereas suicide was involved in only two of the 37 deaths in 2018.
Although the number of suicide deaths in 2020 returned to the DOC’s average baseline of two suicide deaths per year, the OCO “proceeded with an investigation into both cases to determine whether there were findings similar to those put forth in the prior report which potentially contributed to these two deaths.”
Press Releases April 12, 2021, 2:49 pm | in
(TRENTON) – Assemblywoman Angela McKnight (D-Hudson), a member of the Assembly Women and Children Committee and chair of the Assembly Homeland Security Committee, issued the following statement on Monday on the recent changes in the NJ Department of Corrections Ombudsman’s Office:
“The Office of the Ombudsman in the Department of Corrections was put in place to ensure grievances are heard and handled in our correctional facilities. From what we’ve learned from the joint hearing last week, this was not done. It’s a shame and reckless on the part of leadership.
“The recent resignation in DOC leadership of this department presents an opportunity for us to put someone in that position that will help us right the wrongs and improve our facilities. To provide the support the Edna Mahan Correctional Facility needs specifically, it deserves a point person within the Ombu
Now that a top oversight official for New Jersey’s prisons has announced his resignation – a day after a hearing where legislators were clearly unhappy with his work – inmates could see their conditions improve, lawmakers said.
Ombudsman Dan DiBenedetti plans to resign this summer from the position he has held since 2009. He would leave office a year after getting greater power to serve as a prison watchdog but, critics have said, not using that power.
New Jersey’s prisons have come under increased scrutiny, including its only prison for women where federal authorities have detailed assaults and sexual abuse. A violent assault on female inmates earlier this year is now the subject of criminal investigations.
House pushes to include governor, lawmakers under open records act sooeveningnews.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from sooeveningnews.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Michigan House lawmakers want to make it easier for people to obtain records from the governor and the Legislature. But they ve pushed this rock up the hill before, only to see their efforts ignored in the Senate.
A bipartisan group of lawmakers in the House hope this legislative session is different. On Thursday, the House Oversight Committee reviewed 10 bills that would expand Michigan s open records law so that the highest elected leaders in the state would need to turn over some records when requested.
Chairman Steven Johnson, R-Wayland, and other lawmakers pointed to recent revelations about confidentiality agreements and payments between former state government officials and the office of Gov. Gretchen Whitmer as evidence the reforms are needed now more than ever.