Judge asks to review MA prison suicide records

A federal judge has ordered a former contractor for the state prison system to provide the court with the psychiatric treatment records of about 25 inmates who committed or attempted suicide from 2005 to 2007.

U.S. Chief District Court Judge Mark Wolf on Wednesday gave the University of Massachusetts Correctional Health Program until Aug. 27 to turn over documents.

The Boston Globe reports that he wants to determine whether he can legally turn them over to an advocacy group that has sued the state over the care of mentally ill inmates.

UMass Correctional Health contends that the records are confidential under federal medical privacy law.

Lawyers for the Disability Law Center say the records are crucial to their lawsuit in which they allege mentally ill inmates are not properly cared for.