To hear Grand Traverse County Sheriff Scott Fewins tell it, nobody at the county jail had a "clue" that Sarah Lynn Clark, who hung herself in a shower room at the county jail last month, was suicidal.
If that's the case, it means either Clark's own mother isn't telling the truth about her daughter's desire to harm herself, or there is something critically wrong with the jail's internal record-keeping.
If that's not the case -- if jailers did, indeed, know Clark was suicidal or had been on suicide watch during a 2004 jail term but took no action this time -- Fewins and the jail have much to answer for.
The truth should be easy to determine. Does the jail have a record of Clark being on suicide watch in 2004 or not? Does the jail keep such records for future reference or not? Did jailers recognize Clark and recall her 2004 stay -- and her claimed suicide watch status -- or not?
We don't know. And the reason we don't know is that Sheriff Fewins and Undersheriff Nathan Alger have refused to answer specific questions about Clark or her 2004 stay or the way the jail keeps such records -- if at all. Jail Administrator Capt. Robert Hall and Assistant Jail Administrator Lt. Dennis Monroe said they and other jail officials are "not allowed" to comment on Clark's death.
That's not acceptable.
The issue here is what did Fewins and jail personnel know and when did they know it -- period. The public has a right to that information.
If there was no indication or history of suicidal behavior, jail officers can't be blamed for treating Clark like any other prisoner. When she was brought into the jail she was placed in an isolation cell because of a potentially contagious skin rash; Fewins said officials were awaiting test results on the rash before moving Clark into the general population.
But her mother, Wendy Blodgett, is adamant that jail employees knew who Clark was, some by her first name, and that she had been put on suicide watch a number of times in 2004. In 2005, in fact, Clark complained to the media that the women's area of the jail was infested with insects and mold. Fewins countered that the jail had been found to be 100 percent in compliance with national standards in an independent inspection.
It's not credible, then, that he didn't know who Clark was; the fact that he won't comment on what he did or didn't know about her now simply raises more questions.
Some people have said that if anyone is to blame here, it is Clark herself. She was sentenced to six months in the jail in 2004 on a felonious driving charge when she was 17. Her mother acknowledged Clark had a history of drug and alcohol problems. She was arrested Feb. 24 on drug-related charges; she hung herself Feb. 28.
The fact, however, is that Fewins has a responsibility to ensure the safety of prisoners under his control, including preventing them from harming themselves, no matter who they are or what they've done. That's as much their duty as keeping dangerous felons off the streets. It's not negotiable and it's not subject to what a prisoner did to end up in jail.
Since Michigan shut down its hospitals for the mentally ill in the early 1990s, the number of people with emotional and mental problems in state jails has soared. Advocates claim jails have become dumping grounds for those who need treatment, not incarceration, despite the fact that jails and jail guards are not equipped or trained to deal with such individuals.
That's one more reason the jail, and jail rules, must be an open book. Taxpayers pay hundreds of thousands a year to support the facility and have every right to expect the county isn't being exposed to liability and prisoners aren't being exposed to harm.
Taxpayers need answers, now.
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