By Toya Graham
Herald Online
Corrections1 Exclusive: Writing a suicide prevention policy
ROCK HILL, S.C. — Rock Hill city jail officials are taking steps to prevent suicides at the facility after two inmates killed themselves within a six-month period.
Officials have removed telephones from four cells after the cords were used in the two inmate suicides, the latest coming in December.
Last month, 35-year-old Jason Douglas Herring hanged himself with a blanket that was anchored to a phone cord in his cell. Six months before, 45-year-old Glenda
Childers used a phone cord to strangle herself, reports show. Childers’ former cell is one that no longer has a phone.
“We’re looking at the phones, and we’ve made further modifications,” Police Chief John Gregory said last week. “We are taking action. We have a plan to make it safer so nothing like that can happen again. I don’t want to talk about specifics until it happens.”
The plan is slated to be implemented before the end of this year, said Lt. Brad Redfearn, the department’s public information officer.
For now, eight holding cells have telephones. Inmates use phones to make collect calls to arrange for bond or to contact their relatives and lawyers.
“It’s better to have inmates secured in cells than to have them moving freely within the jail trying to use telephones,” Gregory said. “It could lead to a lot of incidents. It’s a security risk for the jail staff.”
Gregory would not say if all the telephones would be removed eventually. But he said jail cells that are less visible to officials must be occupied by two people.
“It’s another preventive measure that we’ve taken since December,” Redfearn said.
Records show that Douglas and Childers are the only inmates who have committed suicide at the jail in the past five years. Inmates are kept at the 48-hour holding site until they post bond or, in some cases, are transferred to York County Detention Center in York.
Only one person has committed suicide at the detention center since 1991, officials said.
“Even when we do our very best to protect inmates, sometimes we fail,” York County Sheriff Bruce Bryant said.
Jail checks
County detention and city jail officers check each holding cell every 30 minutes. But it was too late when an officer checked Childers.
Childers had been at the jail for about three hours when officers found her unresponsive and slumped against a wall. After Childers’ June 5 suicide, police shortened the 33-inch telephone cord in a dozen holding cells to 12 inches.
“We took the proper precautions to make sure that the (telephone) cord was not used in the same manner again,” Redfearn said.
But six months later, an officer found an unresponsive Herring, who used a blanket and the shortened cord to kill himself. He had been in his cell, which can hold two people, by himself for about four hours. The incident remains under investigation, Redfearn said.
Rock Hill jail booking procedures mandate that people who are suicidal or violent or under the influence of drugs or alcohol are to be separated from other inmates. Those inmates are checked every 15 minutes.
Lowest point
When people are arrested and brought to the booking area at the city jail or detention center, they are fingerprinted and photographed and their personal property - including shoes, shoestrings, neckties, belts and clothing - are taken.
“When you bring an inmate into your facility, that’s the lowest point of his life,” Bryant said. “He feels like his life is over. He feels like, ‘This is the worse thing that’s ever happened to me, and I have no reason to live.’”
During the booking process, city and county jailers look for red flags - such as an inmate who is crying or threatening to kill himself - that suggest suicide. Also, jailers at both agencies ask questions that could flag inmates as a suicide risk before they go to a holding cell.
“You have to be mindful of people’s mental state,” Bryant said. “If they give us any indication that they intend to try to end their life, then we put them on suicide watch.”
Those inmates are placed in suicide cells wearing suicide smocks that are held in place by Velcro straps. Their cells include a toilet and sink but no telephone. The Rock Hill jail does not have a specific suicide cell, Redfearn said.
While suicide attempts are commonplace at the city jail and county detention center, jailers are trained to recognize suspicious and dangerous inmate behaviors, said Capt. Freddie Arwood, director of detention security.
“You can’t take it lightly,” Arwood said of suicide threats. “You have the ones who just say it thinking they’re going to get out of jail. Then you have the ones who say it, and they’re showing signs of suicide.”
Arwood recalled a man who tied a shoe string around his neck in an attempt to end his life. In another instance, a woman tied a bra around her neck but was revived.
Rock Hill jailers, also trained to recognize potentially dangerous inmate behaviors, have had their share of suicide attempts, Gregory said.
“We’ve had situations where officers have seen inmates attempting to harm themselves or others and have been able to stop them,” Gregory said.
For example, on Sept. 11 of last year, a female inmate wrapped a blanket around her neck and tied a knot in it, according to a report.
Then during a jail check on Oct. 6, a male inmate used a spoon handle to cut himself, another report notes. A third report shows that a jail check resulted in discovering an inmate who used a broken tile to cut a wrist.
“We just stay as vigilant as we possibly can to prevent people from having the opportunity to harm themselves or others,” Gregory said.
Copyright 2009 McClatchy Newspapers Inc.