By C1 Staff
CHARLESTON, Ill. — The Coles County Sheriff’s Department isn’t planning any policy changes after a man jumped from the second floor of the county courthouse with the intention to commit suicide.
“They did everything according to protocol and according to procedure,” said Sheriff Darrell Cox, according to the Herald-Review. They will however review procedures for escorting inmates to court, which is a standard move in such situations.
All inmates were restrained and there were no indicators ahead of time that the man was planning to make the jump or otherwise harm himself.
The man, Anthony B. McFarland, allegedly became distraught after a court hearing when he learned the possible prison sentence he could receive. He then stepped onto a bench next to the second-floor railing of the courthouse and jumped over the railing in an attempt to kill himself. McFarland admitted to much when he was interviewed later in the day.
McFarland was incarcerated for a methamphetamine precursor charge. He is expected to be released Friday from Sarah Bush Lincoln Health Center and whether he returns to jail or remains on recognizance bond depends on his condition.
Cox said that during his 35 years with the department, there’s only been one other similar incident to Thursday’s jump: in the early 1980s an inmate tried to jump over the courthouse’s third-floor railing following a meeting at the probation office there.
Deputy James Redden, now retired, was accompanying the inmate and “literally grabbed him by the ankle” to keep him from falling.