Despair from Colorado's Lifetime Act Claims Another Victim

The hopeless cry for help is never as loud as the deafening silence of suicide. Wednesday, Blane Marshall, 62, an inmate in the Fremont Correctional Facility here, made his cry for help when he attempted suicide by hanging.

Marshall is the second attempted suicide in seven months for the 48 men of B-Pod Cell House Six. B-Pod is one of the state's therapeutic living units for sex offenders sentenced under the Lifetime Supervision Act's indeterminate sentencing. Both suicide attempts have been by hanging.

The first suicide attempt was made in December of last year by David Girk 46, an interstate transfer from Washington State.

After his attempt he was sent to the state mental hospital in San Carlos for several months only to return to the same B-Pod where he tried to end his life. Girk is now trying to go back to Washington State where he believes "the system is more just and humane."

Marshall used the electrical cord from his headphones to fashion a noose and then stuffed a sock in his mouth. A suicide note was left taped to his cell door citing hopelessness with the indeterminate sentence, frustration with SOTMP (the state agency responsible for sex offender treatment in Doc), and inmate harassment as the reasons for ending his life.

Marshall is a former U.S. Marine, Vietnam Veteran, and Purple Heart recipient. Given his past hardships and struggles it is notable that what finally pushed the combat vet to attempt suicide was the suffering of not knowing his fate, the endless incarceration past his intended release date, and the false hope and anguishing disappointment of a yearly rejection by the parole board.

According to CDOC records only 5 percent of Lifetime Act inmates eligible for parole were released last year. In the first 10 years of the act the rate was even worse with less than 1 percent receiving parole.

Inmates in B-Pod say Marshall is not alone in his feelings of hopelessness. "We're not stupid," said one inmate speaking on the condition of anonymity for fear of retribution, "we know the stats, we see the same faces year after year regardless of the success or failure meeting the SOTMP treatment goals and the requirements of the Lifetime Act - the parole board just is not going to let us go whether we've served our time and completed our treatment or not. There is not a man here who has not thought about doing what Marshall did. End it fast or slow, but one way or another, this place is going to kill you, and nobody cares."

The inmate I spoke with is more right than he knows, according to CDOC statistics an inmate in B-Pod is more likely to leave the prison on a gurney through suicide than on his feet through parole.

The failure of the parole board to recognize legislative and judicial intent has left some men incarcerated for a decade on a 2-year sentence. Currently over 600 men are being held past their intended release date with no hope of relief in sight.

The current situation leaves many family members and advocates to wonder how many more men will succumb to the hopelessness and follow the example of Marshall and Girk before real change is made.

Related Stories

No hope leads to a short rope Colorado prison