Advocates, lawmakers call for change after recent suicides at Westchester correctional facility
State Sen. Pete Harckham says there have been two apparent suicides at Bedford Hills Correctional Facility in the past four weeks.
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Advocates and lawmakers are calling for change after they say a number of apparent suicides have occurred a correctional facility in Westchester.
State Sen. Pete Harckham says incarcerated women need to know that their well-being matters.
"It's deeply troubling when there are two apparent suicides in a four-week period," Harckham says.
His message comes after he and Assemblyman Chris Burdick sent a letter to the state's Department of Corrections and Community Supervision. The letter calls for an investigation into these apparent suicides at Bedford Hills Correctional Facility.
He says the death of Manuela Morgado, 60, of Mamaroneck Village, who was serving 20 years-to-life for the murder of her young son, was the third death and second apparent suicide at that the facility in just four weeks.
Harckham says a series of restrictions imposed on the women may be contributing to the crisis.
"The women were restricted from a number of their activities including showers, getting to work in the kitchen, phone calls, library...making it almost impossible to get out of their cells," Harckham says.
Harckham says he was told in December that these restrictions were temporary measures meant to address violence inside the facility.
"And yet, as of at least three weeks ago, those restrictions were still in place," Harckham says.
A spokesperson from corrections says all three deaths are already under investigation.
However, Jennifer Scaife, the executive director of a prison oversight group called Correctional Association of New York, says staffing shortages at prisons across the state could play a role in these deaths.
"I'm concerned that what we're seeing at Bedford Hills is somehow connected to trends across the state," Scaife says.
It's one of the reasons why Scaife is calling for a complete review of the culture at Bedford Hills during the death investigations.
"What's going on at Bedford Hills that such desperation is driving these two individuals to harm themselves," Scaife says.
