LANSING — Preliminary reports from a police investigation into the June 6 overdose death of a 36-year-old women's prison inmate raise questions about the conduct of both prison officers and some fellow inmates.
On the eve of her death, which a July 16 autopsy determined was caused by suicide, Ashley Hoath spent many hours in a handicapped bathroom at Women's Huron Valley Correctional Facility, according to summaries of interviews conducted by Michigan State Police. Hoath exhibited other concerning behavior, including giving other inmates hugs when she generally did not like to be touched, correcting an inmate who said they would see her the next day with "no you won't," and asking for and receiving full bottles of aspirin from other inmates,
according to the partly redacted police reports.
Two women who live in Hoath's unit told police they each asked a corrections officer to keep an eye on Hoath at around midnight, because of the many hours she had spent in the bathroom and other concerning behavior, according to the police reports released July 27 by the Michigan Department of Corrections. Based on the reports, the inmates gave those alerts to an officer or officers separately, rather than approaching an officer together.
But it was nearly three hours later, at around 2:45 a.m. that an inmate found Hoath on the bathroom floor, and another 90 minutes passed before Hoath was transported to the hospital, according to the reports. Hoath was pronounced dead at Trinity Health Ann Arbor Hospital at 8:41 a.m. on June 6, after arriving at the hospital "alert and responsive," but with an elevated heart rate records show.
The names of inmates interviewed, as well as the names of corrections officers they reference, are redacted in the reports released by the MDOC. It appears from the reports that the MSP investigation remains open.
Hoath was the third of four female prison inmates to die unexpectedly between May 13 and July 2. The deaths and a history of complaints has placed the prison under intense scrutiny over its living conditions and health care. Police and internal Corrections Department investigations into all the deaths continue.
A fifth Women's Huron Valley inmate died July 23 at St. Joseph Mercy Hospital in Ann Arbor, the MDOC said July 24. Dasie Forbes, 69, entered palliative care at the prison in February and was admitted to the hospital July 12, the department Forbes was diagnosed with "multiple chronic, complex, life-limiting illnesses," and "this was an expected death," the depatment said. No autopsy is planned. A relative of Forbes could not be reached for comment.
Hoath's autopsy report, signed by Dr. Catherine Morris, a staff pathologist at Michigan Medicine Pathology and Clinical Laboratories in Ann Arbor, says Hoath had a toxic level of aspirin in her blood and had also ingested apple seeds, which can be toxic if ingested in large quantities.
The interviews with 11 inmates, who were all read their Miranda rights, describe Hoath's struggles with mental healt and addiction and give sometimes conflicting accounts of whether Hoath had recently been "clean" in a prison where inmates say drug use is rampant and illicit drugs are readily available.
The police reports say that Hoath told prison medical staff that in addition to consuming large volumes of apple seeds, Hoath "used methamphetamine the day prior."
A spokesperson for the Hoath family could not immediately be reached for comment July 28.
One inmate told the MSP that when Hoath was still in the bathroom at around midnight, she went to an officer "to express her concern for Ashley," according to the interview summaries. That inmate said an officer would knock on the door of the restroom, "get a verbal response," and leave it at that. The same inmate told the MSP she heard sounds of vomiting and crying coming from the bathroom between around 1 a.m. and 2 a.m. There is no indication from the police reports that the inmate alerted an officer again after she heard those sounds.
Another inmate told the MSP that she noticed Hoath "breathing heavy and acting strange" at around 9 p.m. on June 5 and that when an officer told Hoath to get out of the bathroom around three hours later, "she went and told the officer she needed to keep checking on Ashley because of the odd behavior she saw."
The MSP interviews with women who lived in Hoath's unit do not appear to include an interview with another inmate, who lived in a different prison unit but told the Detroit Free Press she told officers to keep an eye on Hoath shortly after dinner on June 5.
Ginger Bailey, an inmate since 2017, said in a June 8 interview with the Detroit Free Press that she ate dinner in the chow hall with Hoath, hours before Hoath died, and was concerned enough about Hoath's mental state that she alerted prison officials to keep an eye on her that night.
"She's going to hurt herself," Bailey said she told the officer in her unit. Since Hoath lived in a different housing unit than Bailey did, Bailey said she asked that officer to call an officer in the unit where Hoath lived and relay Bailey's concerns, which she said the officer did.
According to the MSP interviews, the same unidentified inmate also told police she gave Hoath a full bottle of aspirin at around 9 p.m., with the understanding that Hoath would eventually replace it, and "knew Ashley had asked multiple people for aspirin," according to the reports. The inmate said she couldn't remember whether the bottle contained 50 or 100 tablets. Hoath "did not say why she wanted the aspirin," but the inmate "assumed she was in pain due to the heavy breathing she noticed Ashley to have."
A different inmate told the MSP that Hoath asked her for a bottle of aspirin at around 8 p.m. and she gave Hoath a full bottle and asked her to later return what she didn't use, according to the police reports. That inmate said she knew Hoath had been hugging people on June 5 and had told another inmate she wouldn't see her in the morning.
One of the inmates who alerted an officer at around midnight about Hoath's behavior said "Ashley's friends had assumed that she was asking for aspirin to harm herself."
But another inmate told the MSP that inmates who gave aspirin to Hoath were "distraught" after learning of her death. That inmate also told the MSP that after Hoath's room was taped off by police on the morning of June 6, "the drug dealers in the unit began panicking."
According to the police reports, it appeared Hoath spent hours in the bathroom and at one point moved to her room briefly before returning to the bathroom. Hoath also at one point went out into the prison yard, where she walked to a far corner where inmates can't be seen by security cameras.
Call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline 24 hours a day at 800-273-8255 to speak to a counselor if you're in a crisis. Among the warning signs of suicide are talking about suicide, expressions of hopelessness, personality changes, depression or giving away possessions. To learn more, go to https://suicidepreventionlifeline.org/.
Contact Paul Egan: 517-372-8660 or pegan@freepress.com.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Reports point to missed warnings in Mich. women's prison suicide death
