Boston Blotter: Globe Investigates Prison Suicides

--The Blotter usually focuses on how people get to jail, but not what happens to people when they get there. The Globe has launched a series about an outbreak of prison suicides, and the authors conclude that the suicides may be the result of "careless errors and dangerous decisions by correction officials and staff at UMass Correctional Health."

Why is it important to think about what happens to criminals' mental health in prison? Because most prisoners will eventually be let out, and if a mental-health matter led them to jail, they might wind up worse off than they started if those problems aren't treated.

One doctor interviewed for the piece points the finger at solitary confinement's effects: "It is actually the stupidest and most dysfunctional thing to do to a mentally ill prisoner."

--Two armed men kidnapped a woman from her home in Dorchester yesterday morning and made her drive them to Boston Check Cashers. They made her open the safe, took money, tied her up, and took off. They ditched the car, and now police are looking for "two black non-Hispanic males, 20-30 years of age, 5'7" in height." One man had a gun, and the other had a knife.

--In Newton, neighbors of the man who turned himself in to the MBTA as the "Green Line Groper" told the Globe that he certainly didn't seem like a groping kind of guy.

Image from Amazon. All charges alleged until proven under law.