New app helps flag suicidal tweets

UPDATE: Why Samaritans' app to spot depressed tweets does more harm than good

10-29-2014 Global:

Suicide prevention organization Samaritans has launched a free app that flags disturbing tweets and sends an alert to friends.

The app, Samaritans Radar, is currently available for Twitter users. Once downloaded, it sends an alert to your email address when a person you follow tweets phrases such as "help me," "tired of being alone," "hate myself" and "need someone to talk to."

Academic experts helped compile the words commonly used during difficult times, it said.

In addition to flagging tweets, the UK-based organization will help contact anyone you're concerned about 24/7.

"Samaritans Radar is in its infancy and won't get it right every time," the organization said in a statement Wednesday. "It's not good at sarcasm or jokes yet! But there's a way for you to give feedback on whether a Samaritans Radar alert was correct, so the service improves for everyone."

Every 40 seconds, someone in the world takes their own life, a global tally of more than 800,000 suicides a year, according to a United Nations report released last month.

Suicide kills more people annually than conflicts and natural catastrophes, the U.N. said.

The report analyzed suicide data from 172 countries and took a decade to compile. ..Source.. by Faith Karimi

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Suicides: more common than murder

10-9-2012 National:

10th leading cause of death for adults, 3rd for young adults

Seventeen-year-old Tricia Martin may be the Tri-Valley's latest casualty in an ongoing trend that claims nearly 34,000 people every year in the United States.

Martin, a senior at Village High School in Pleasanton, was one of two people found dead in a Newark motel on Sept. 14, in what police describe as a double suicide or murder-suicide. She was with her boyfriend, a young man from Livermore.

At Tricia Martin's service Sept. 22, five of her friends said a few words, and none of them made it through without crying. All had to stop at least momentarily.

"You could just feel how much they were hurting," said Karen Klein, a friend of the family. "You wanted to do something, anything, to help them, and there's just nothing you can do."

Martin's death is not an isolated case. Friends and family members were shocked last year when 15-year-old Allison Bayliss, a San Ramon Valley High sophomore, apparently jumped from the Golden gate Bridge.

While Bayliss might have felt alone -- those who survive a suicide attempt often say they do -- she was not. One in 10 Americans suffer from depression, one of the leading causes of suicide, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which says suicide is the 10th leading cause of death in the country. A new study published in the American Journal of Public Health claims suicides now claim more people than car crashes.

In Pleasanton, 19 people killed themselves between January 2010 and September of this year -- four in 2010, seven in 2011, and at least eight so far this year. Alameda County shows 380 people died by their own hand during that time, 158 in 2010, 139 in 2011, and 83 through August, although the coroner's office notes that some deaths are still under investigation.

Danville has recorded six deaths during that same time: two in 2010, three in 2011, and one so far this year, while San Ramon shows two suicides in 2010, five in 2011 and none so far this year. In Contra Costa County there have been 301 suicides during the same period, with 118 in 2010, 116 in 2011, and 76 so far this year.

Local suicides seem to be taking place more in public. In recent months, one person hanged himself at a public parking lot in Danville, and a Pleasanton man hanged himself at Pleasanton Ridge. Two people leapt to their death in separate incidents at the two local BART stations. A Danville woman drove her car into a ravine on Mount Diablo, and, in a particularly tragic incident, Pleasanton resident Amy Burton Freeman fatally shot herself after killing her 13-year-old daughter, Ainslee.

Beyond that, a Pleasanton man shot himself earlier this year. A Fremont man leaped onto Interstate 580 late last year. A San Ramon man shot himself in the head during a traffic stop last November. A 2007 Amador Valley graduate shot himself after killing his ex-girlfriend, a 2006 Amador Valley grad, in a San Diego murder-suicide in December 2011. One person, whose sex was not released, committed suicide in April 2011 in the creek bed that runs through downtown.

Earlier this month, an inmate at the Santa Rita Jail in Dublin committed suicide on by hanging himself in his cell, and late last year, a man in custody after running off with a local high school girl tried to kill himself by jumping off the top tier of the jail, leaving him partially paralyzed.

At least three other teens have died from suicide in recent years.

An Amador Valley High freshman jumped in front of a train in April 2010. A 13-year-old attending Opportunity Middle School shot himself in April 2011. A San Ramon Valley High School sophomore jumped from the Golden Gate Bridge in May 2011. A middle school girl from Diablo Vista Middle School killed herself in 2008, apparently despondent over poor math scores.

The CDC reports suicide is the third-leading cause of death of people 15 to 24 and the fourth leading cause of death for children between the ages of 10 and 14.

Those are just the ones that made the news. Neither the Danville Express nor the San Ramon Express, as is the case with most publications, covers suicides unless they occur in public places, the victims are public figures, or when the loss affects a great number of people, such as when a teen dies and classmates, teachers, teammates and others are mourning.

"By reporting these stories we are able to show how prevalent suicide is. Perhaps making community members aware will bring about discussion, and perhaps discussion will bring about help for people who are struggling with the idea, have a loved one struggling with the idea, or have lost someone to suicide," said Gina Allen, publisher of the two online papers. "We can't pretend suicide is not an issue."

Suicide has become such a big issue nationwide that the Obama administration this month, National Suicide Prevention Month, announced a major initiative to help prevent suicides, especially among veterans, who commit suicide at a higher rate than civilians. A New York Times article in June said veteran suicides had risen 18% between 2011 and 2012. The Obama plan will boost staff at the national crisis hotline (800-273-855) for both civilians and members of the military and provide $55.6 million for state and local programs.

Local police organizations, including the Pleasanton Police Department, are also receiving crisis intervention training to teach officers how to better interact with people threatening suicide or who are mentally ill. Dronker's death inspired his brother and sister-in-law, Ron and Brenda Dronkers, to create the "I am Here" foundation, "to provide a safe, no judgmental website that will provide online resources" and to eventually have a 24-hour hotline and online chat room "for those who need a friendly, confidential ear." ..Source.. by Glenn Wohltmann

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Sex offender's suicide raises questions about treatment

See also "Is workload an issue?, sidebar in original artilce. (Postedin Suicides)

1-31-2012 Maine:

AUGUSTA -- In the early morning hours of Jan. 3, 2011, Scott Penney covered his recliner in plastic and carefully leaned plywood against the backrest.

He walked around his State Street apartment, pulling the window shades closed. He felt his way across the dark room and nestled into the recliner. There, on a coffee table in front of him, Penney left a note to his family that he hoped would explain his decision, even as it begged for their forgiveness.

Penney covered his head with a tarp, grabbed a rusty shotgun, and put the barrel under his chin. He pulled the trigger.

"He didn't want to make a mess for the landlord," his mother, Linda Penney, said. "He planned it right to the letter."

Scott Penney, 45, was a trusted employee, a loyal friend, a beloved son and a proud father.

But he also was a convicted child molester.

It was this sordid past that darkened Penney's life. Everyone knew, or could easily find out, the worst thing Penney had ever done. It became who he was: Scott Penney, sexual offender.

"I will never have my life back," Penney wrote in his final letter. "I can't deal with all this around me and what has happened."

Linda Penney has her reasons for telling her son's story, but gaining sympathy isn't one of them. She doesn't offer excuses for the crimes her son committed and is not mad at the judicial system for punishing her son.

But Linda Penney hopes others will see her son as she did. She hopes others will understand the crushing social stigma he experienced as a convicted sex offender. Linda Penney also hopes that experience is understood by a probation officer assigned to supervise her son whom she believes mishandled the case and contributed to her son's decision to end his life.

"I want people out there aware that not every child molester is a bad person," she said.

Sexual offenses

Scott Penney was convicted in December 2002 of seven charges, including three counts of sexual assault and four of unlawful sexual contact, all involving the same victim and occurring in Winthrop between Nov. 11, 1997, and Dec. 31, 2001.

The victim -- a daughter of Penney's then-girlfriend -- was between the ages of 10 and 14 at the time. Penney's only previous conviction was in March 2002 when he was sentenced to 45 days in jail for assault and violating conditions of release.

Penney was sentenced in October 2003 to 15 years in prison, with all but seven years suspended, and six years of probation. He was also banned from contact with the victim and her family and unsupervised contact with any girl under age 18. Penney was required to register with the state as a sex offender for the rest of his life once he was released from prison.

"I do show remorse for what they lost and what I've lost," he said at his sentencing.

Prison proved difficult for a man who spent his first 35 years as a law-abiding citizen. Scott Penney told his family not to call because it worsened his treatment, his mother said. That is why Linda Penney waited so long to respond after receiving a disturbing phone call one night.

"All I heard was, 'Ma!,'" she said. "Then, no one was there."

A short time later she received a disturbing letter from her son.

"By now you know what I have done," Linda Penney said, recalling the letter. "I thought he had killed himself," she added.

She waited, unwilling to call her son and jeopardize him, until she could stand it no more. When she finally called, she couldn't talk to her son and no one at the prison would explain why.

When she finally saw her son, his wrists were bandaged. He was standing behind protective glass, his ankles and hands were handcuffed and there were three guards nearby. She spoke to him briefly on the phone.

"He wanted to end his life," Linda Penney recalled. "All he did was hurt himself."

Scott Penney recovered and was put in solitary confinement for 30 days, during which time other inmates stole his belongings, Linda Penney said. Her son kept quiet about the theft and other mistreatment he endured.

"I guess you learn not to say anything," Linda Penney said. "He lived in fear that if anyone says anything, you're going to get in trouble."

Released on probation

Scott Penney walked out of the Maine State Prison in June of 2008 and began six years of probation.

Penney's conditions of release included the usual prohibitions against using drugs, alcohol and firearms, but Penney was still specifically prohibited from contact with the victim or her family and any unsupervised contact with any girl under age 18. Penney's probation officer had to approve anyone who wanted to supervise such a visit.

Penney also had to attend group counseling one day a week, which cost him $35 each, for the duration of his probation.

By the time Scott Penney got out of prison, Linda Penney and her husband, Albert Penney, were raising their 9-year-old grandson, Kenney, the son of the couple's other son, Kenneth Penney.

Scott Penney wrote a letter to his counseling group seeking advice on whether he could be around the child. The conditions of release did not prohibit such contact and the group agreed it put neither Penney nor the child at risk, Linda Penney said.

"We accepted him back into the family," she said.

Linda Penney had promised that her son, who spent years working at Carleton Woolen Mill in Winthrop, would have a job when he got out of prison. She called on an old friend, Pauline Dube, who took over Pat Jackson Septic in Augusta when her husband died the year before.

"She said, 'Send him up and I'll find a job,'" Linda Penney said. "And she did."

Scott Penney started at the septic company shortly after his release from prison and remained until his death last year. During that time he went from a helper on one of the trucks to operating the main computer system and managing the treatment plant.

"He was an excellent worker," Dube said. "He was a great guy. He would help anybody out. All the guys loved him. He was always willing to give a hand."

Penney passed many nights reading books on how the company's machinery worked and going online to study treatment plant processes.

Dube watched as Scott Penney grew personally as well. He began to form friendships with the men in the crew and, ultimately, with Dube.

"He blossomed from someone who wouldn't say two words to kidding around with the guys," she said. "He would call me at night and in the morning just to see what was going on and how to plan the day. His job was everything to him. He loved this place."

Dube noticed, too, the care that Penney took to follow his conditions of release. He made sure to do his grocery shopping in the morning so he would not be around young girls.

Dube's juvenile daughter sometimes visited her mother at the company. On those occasions, Dube would call Penney and he would stay away from the office until the girl was gone. Penney faithfully made every appointment, even re-arranging his work schedule when necessary, Dube said.

Penney would work all night long, if needed, to make up the time, she said.

Penney began confiding in Dube as the two became close friends. In those conversations, she got an up-close view of the life of a sex offender.

"Really, you have no life," she said. "You go to work, you go home. They're not supposed to go where there are big groups. They take away everything they can."

Back into his shell

When Scott Penney got out of prison he was initially placed under the supervision of Probation and Parole Officer Joseph Galego. Everything Galego did, such as working around Scott Penney's work schedule for their meetings, made Linda Penney believe Galego cared about her son.

Galego was Penney's probation officer for more than two years.

"He was almost like a saint. He helped Scott a lot," Linda Penney said.

And Penney's probation compliance enabled him to be considered less at-risk under the corrections' department rankings.

That switch, in 2010, resulted in Scott Penney being placed under the supervision of a new probation and parole officer, whose identity is being withheld because there is no official accusation of wrongdoing.

Linda Penney said the new probation officer had an iron fist approach to supervision, demanding that Scott Penney report to meetings at a certain time, even if it meant him losing work pay.

The change in her son soon became noticeable, Linda Penney said. Scott Penney began to regress back into his shell, afraid of incurring the new probation officer's wrath, Linda Penney said.

The depth of his fear came to light in December when Scott Penney's aunt, Barbara Penney, died. She was just a few years older than he was and the two had been close friends for most of their lives.

The new probation officer forbade him from attending the funeral because there might be young girls around, Linda Penney said.

Perhaps most distressingly, Linda Penney said, the probation officer refused to let Scott Penney visit his parents when his nephew, Kenney, was around. Linda Penney said that decision was based on a misreading of Scott Penney's conditions of release, which forbid him from having unsupervised contact with girls, but had no prohibition from being around boys.

She said her son's daily visits were a source of stability for him. "It gave him something to look forward to at the end of his day. It gave him the opportunity to rebuild and make stronger his relationship with us, his parents."

Scott Penney faced the prospect of going back to prison if he disobeyed.

"To Scott, his mother was his world," Dube said. "He adored her. To say he couldn't go to his mother's house because her grandson lived there? She (the probation officer) was wrong."

Dube's conversations with Scott Penney suddenly turned to his fear and frustration with the probation officer. His depression was palpable.

Dube said he was petrified of the officer, who didn't even want him to go grocery shopping because there might be kids there.

"What's he supposed to do?" Dube said. He said he thought the officer was going to put him back in jail because that's what he was told every week at their meetings. "For him, going back to jail meant the end of life. He said he would kill himself before he ever went there."

Linda Penney believes her son saw little chance of ever being free again.

No answers

Repeated phone messages over several months to the probation officer were not returned. Galego, Penney's first probation officer, declined comment and referred questions to his supervisor, John Lorenzen, who did not return phone messages.

Judy Plummer, public affairs coordinator for the Maine Department of Corrections, and attorney general spokeswoman Brenda Kielty both would not comment. Kielty said the agencies have been notified that a lawsuit is planned.

Linda Penney said she has no intention of filing suit. She said she even signed an affidavit saying she would not file suit in an attempt to learn more about the supervision of her son, but the department has not released that information.

Penney and Scott Penney's son, Daniel McKecknie, hired attorney Ronald Bourget to draft a letter to Lorenzen, claiming that the probation officer misread Scott Penney's probation requirements.

"Linda Penney and Daniel McKecknie wish to report this as a grievance to you of wrongdoing," Bourget wrote. "In short, it appears that (the probation officer) was not keeping informed of the conduct and conditions of Scott Penney and using suitable methods to encourage Scott to improve his conduct and conditions."

Bourget's letter asked for a review of Scott Penney's supervision under the probation officer to determine if the officer "failed or refused to properly review the probation conditions and whether the restrictions of the probation officer were overly restrictive."

It is unclear whether such a review ever happened. Information on employee investigations is considered private without the employee's approval.

Final disciplinary action, however, is public.

Plummer, responding to a Freedom of Access Act request made by the Kennebec Journal, said, "There is no final written decision relating to disciplinary action taken against (the probation officer) in the last two years. There is no final written decision relating to disciplinary action taken against anyone in the Department of Corrections resulting from the supervision of Scott Penney."

Dube and Scott Penney's parents met with Lorenzen and the probation officer a week after Scott Penney shot himself.

After 10 minutes, the probation officer left the room, Linda Penney said.

She said the officer said "I don't have to take t his." LInda Penney said if the officer hadn't walked out and refused to listen "I wouldn't have gone so far with this."

"They made us feel like our son wasn't worth anything. My son was worth a lot."

In his final letter to his family, Scott Penney pleaded for them to live in peace with each other and enjoy their lives.

"You truly never know when it will be gone," he said. "And it hurts to lose it, believe me. My life has no meaning anymore, and it never can."

Linda Penney said the loss of her son without warning has taken away a big part of her life.

She said now "no one is bugging him, tell him what to do."

Her son "is at peace now." ..Source.. by Craig Crosby

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