![]() “Especially with people that they know are suicidal. “I would like to see them do their job, follow their own guidelines, and do what they could do, best they can,” Brown said. ‘I would rather die instead of be in jail.’”īrown said she wants to file a wrongful death case against the state. “‘I would rather die instead of be in jail.’ That was some of the things she expressed to some people here when they talked of jail,” Brown said. Online court records don’t list any charges against Kitty Douglas that would have led to her imprisonment at the time.īrown said her daughter had some known mental health issues, and should have been under close watch. I know it,” Brown said.Īccording to Brown, her daughter thought she was in trouble for shoplifting when she called from jail. She’s learned little else from the authorities. ![]() But the department says it can’t disclose much they’re limited by confidentiality policies and health privacy laws.įamily members and activists are sounding the alarm that these deaths are a crisis that needs special attention.īrown said the VPSO who delivered the news in White Mountain didn’t know specifically what happened to her daughter, Kitty Douglas, but she later found out through the State Medical Examiner that it was a suicide. The Department of Corrections’ screening process, recordkeeping policies and security practices mean there should be lots of documentation of what led up to the other 14 deaths. His death in July was related to COVID-19. The department hasn’t published the causes of death, with the exception of 91-year-old James Patrick Wheeler. It’s unclear what’s behind this year’s high, and why seven people died within two weeks of going into custody. The Alaska Department of Corrections hasn’t had this many deaths in one calendar year since 2015. It was a shock – they had talked on the phone recently, and Brown thought her daughter was safe at Hiland Mountain Correctional Center after bouncing between an Anchorage youth shelter and homeless camps.ĭouglas is the youngest of 15 people to die in Alaska jails and prisons so far this year. ![]() It was a village public safety officer letting her know that her 20-year-old daughter, Kitty Douglas, had died in jail. (Photo courtesy of Nora Brown)Įarly one morning this summer, Nora Brown got a knock on her door in White Mountain, a small community near Nome. Douglas had moved to Anchorage that November to attend the Alaska Military Youth Academy, but didn’t finish the program. She would have been 17 or just turned 18 years old at the time. Nora Brown says her daughter, Kitty Douglas, took this selfie in December of 2019 in Anchorage. ![]()
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