During a hot summer day last year, a 25-year-old woman was found hanging in her cell at an Arizona women’s prison. Her death may have been prevented, but multiple corrections officers tasked with monitoring her were sitting in an air conditioned command center instead, giving the woman enough time to commit suicide.
An exclusive video published by Fox 10 Phoenix shows a Perryville Prison officer walking into the cell of Cynthia Apkaw, after he sees her hanging inside. The inside of the cell isn’t shown, but the Arizona Department of Corrections (ADOC) later revealed that Apkaw hanged herself with a bed sheet she’d tied to a vent. In the video, a string of officers sprint to her cell, where they tried to save her.
Anvato Universal PlayerEdit descriptionup.anv.bzAccording to ADOC Director Charles Ryan, six officers responsible for patrolling the prison’s inmates neglected their duties, opting to sit in the air conditioned room. Ryan also explained to Fox 10 that a 45-year-old man named Scott Saba hanged himself at another Arizona facility in February, when officers similarly abandoned their patrols. In both cases, officers lied during subsequent investigations and falsified records.
ADOC just fired 13 people involved in the two incidents — including supervisors — and disciplined eight others.
“I don’t believe this is a reflection on 9,100 other employees, but the message is these 21 employees didn’t do their job the way they should have, and they’ve answered for it,” he told Fox 10.
In addition to Saba’s hanging, there were four other suicides in Arizona prisons so far this year.
While investigators have no way of knowing if Saba’s death could have been prevented by corrections officers fulfilling their patrol responsibilities, Arizona’s correctional facilities have a long history of neglecting prisoners’ medical and mental health needs. In 2014, a class action lawsuit on behalf of 33,000 inmates in the state was filed for that reason.
An investigation by the Arizona Republic determined that the prison suicide rate in Arizona is 60 percent higher than the national average.