An indigenous man who hanged himself from the door of his cell in Acacia prison had been giving away his possessions in the weeks before his death, it has been reported.
On the second day of the inquest into Jomen Blanket’s death, it was also revealed that there are only six cells in the 1,500 inmate prison specifically designed to minimize the risk of suicide.
Coroner Philip Urquhart described it as “woefully inappropriate”, considering there were up to 12 prisoners at a time who would normally be considered at risk of suicide in the private prison.
“It would be totally incomprehensible if a new prison were built today that only had six out of every 1,000 cells that were minimized by ligatures,” he said.
The Coroner’s Court was told on Wednesday that prison staff failed to provide Mr Blanket’s social worker with a transcript of a telephone conversation between him and his mother Karen about 10 weeks before he died.
In that conversation, Mr. Blanket told his mother that he was struggling with anxiety and wanted to kill himself.
“Someone has to go. . . . You know what I was thinking, what I want to do. I want to hang myself, that’s what I want to do,” he said during that recorded call.
Michael Saligari, a social worker who Urquhart said was the closest person to Mr. Blanket, 30, during his incarceration, said he would have liked to see that transcript, or even know about it, as it would have been important in the ongoing treatment. .
Camera icon Jomen Blanket’s mother, Karen Blanket, with her extended family. Credit: Daniel Wilkins/The West Australian
Mr Blanket had attempted suicide 10 times before taking his own life on June 12, 2019.
While locked up, he suffered delusions, including seeing written instructions on inanimate objects commanding him to “commit certain acts”.
On March 13, the day Mr. Blanket told his cellmate he was going to kill himself, he began giving away his belongings. He also claimed that the television was talking to him and that if he didn’t kill himself “someone outside would die”.
A week earlier, Blanket had been moved to the detention unit and placed under hourly observation after he began banging his head against the wall of his cell.
Mr Saligari told the inquest he had repeated concerns about Mr’s state of mind. Blanket, who showed possible signs of psychosis but was assessed by mental health as not being in the midst of a “suicidal crisis”.
Camera icon Mr. Blanket was showing possible signs of psychosis. Credit: Unknown/Provided by family
The assessment also stated that Mr Blanket’s auditory and visual hallucinations were not psychotic, but trauma-related.
“I believed it, but with skepticism,” Saligari said. “I thought maybe there was a little more to it.”
He said Mr Blanket’s death could have been preventable, given his history of self-harm and the resulting transfer in and out of detention and medical cells for his own safety.
On the morning of her death, Blanket asked prison officer Jeana Andrews to see the prison’s counseling service, before changing her mind.
“He made his concerns known to the officers. If he didn’t raise any concerns with the officers that morning . . . and it was very secretive, then (his suicide) probably would have been less preventable, but it made some distress visible. So I think it could be prevented,” Saligari said.
About 15 minutes later, Ms Andrews raised her concerns about Mr Blanket’s behavior over the past few days and it was agreed he should be moved to an unshackled cell.
But there were delays in moving him as the two medical observation cells were occupied.
Less than an hour later, Mrs. Andrews checked on Mr. Blanket found him dead in his cell.
The investigation will last for three days in December.