Sheriff's Office Must Take Responsibility for Inmate Safety in the Wake of Markoff Suicide

BOSTON--When accused "Craigslist Killer" Philip Markoff took his own life while in the custody of the Suffolk County Sheriff's Department on August 15, many were shocked that a man facing murder charges, who had shown a desire to harm himself in the past, wasn't being monitored more closely.

Markoff, 24, had been placed on suicide watch shortly after his arrest, when guards at the Nashua Street Jail noticed marks on his neck consistent with a suicide attempt, but had been off the list since May 14, 2009. Despite this fact, Suffolk County Sheriff Andrea Cabral claims to have been unaware of any signs (like marks on the neck) that Markoff would try to kill himself.

The death not only deprives the family of the victim, Julissa Brisman, from the chance to confront their daughter's alleged murderer in a court of law and another family of their still presumed innocent son, but also highlights a staggering inefficiency in monitoring inmate safety. To hear Cabral tell it, her staff at Nashua Street did everything they were supposed to do in handling Markoff, including making the required rounds every half-hour to check on inmates in their cells.

Still, some local politicians like Boston City Councilor Stephen J. Murphy are calling for an independent investigation into jailhouse procedures in the wake of Markoff's death, and wondering how this was able to happen. How was such a high profile inmate allowed to take his own life while in custody?

"Regardless of my personal feelings about Philip Markoff, he technically was an inmate awaiting trial, and he was in the care and custody of the Suffolk County Sheriff's Office," Murphy told the Boston Herald, chairman of the council's Public Safety Committee. "He had shown a penchant for doing harm to himself before. You would have thought he would have been under the closest of attention."

Murphy, a candidate for state treasurer, said the Boston Police Department and Suffolk County district attorney should widen the scope of their investigation to scrutinize procedures at Nashua Street and other facilities under Cabral's jurisdiction.

The question I ask is this: why was this man with a history of possible suicide attempts, facing the possibility of life in prison ever taken off of suicide watch in the first place?

Surely he poses a greater risk to himself than does an average inmate, so why was this allowed to happen?

Furthermore, if guards make rounds every 30 minutes, then how could they possibly not notice an inmate who, according to Suffolk District Attorney Daniel Conley, used a pen to cut veins and arteries and covered his head with a plastic bag? I mean, I'm no doctor, but surely there would have been significant amounts of blood visible.

According to the Boston Herald, video surveillance footage revealed that Markoff had not been checked all night, a revelation seemingly in direct contradiction with the statement of Sheriff Cabral, who indicated that all procedures had been observed.

Cabral needs to be held accountable for what goes on in the jails she is tasked with overseeing, and it's high time politicians, like Murphy, make sure that she is.

Murphy, a former campaign opponent of Cabral's, sees the death of Markoff as indicative of a lapse on the part of Cabral and her office.

"There's deficiencies in that jail, as chronicled by Philip Markoff," said Murphy to the Boston Herald. "We might have a wrongful-death suit coming at us, and I'm sick of taxpayers picking up the bill for her dereliction of duty."

Those are strong words, and they seem to be warranted. There is no reason that suicides and deaths of those in custody should be treated like unavoidable statistics and brushed aside, while the conditions that caused them are allowed to remain. If Cabral isn't up to certain parts of her job, such as protecting her staff and the inmates in her charge, then we need to bring in someone who is.