Jail Suicides Reach Record Pace in State

More California jail inmates are killing themselves than ever before, and some experts believe it’s because mentally ill people are inappropriately landing in jail.

Last year, 38 inmates committed suicide, most by strangulation, usually with jail bedding but sometimes with socks or even shoelaces. One inmate managed to hold a plastic bag over his head until he suffocated.

The death total was a sharp rise over the 23 suicides recorded in 2000. It also surpassed the previous high of 37, recorded nearly 20 years ago before sweeping reforms were adopted to identify suicidal arrestees and keep them under close supervision.

If this year’s pace of 10 suicides in the first quarter holds up, another record will be set.

One of the state’s leading experts in jail medical care expressed surprise.

“I believe there should be an in-depth look at these instances statewide to see if anyone can find a pattern,” said Rebecca Craig of San Francisco’s Institute for Medical Quality, a California Medical Assn. subsidiary that independently reviews jail medical care.

“The surge is a concern to us,” said Hallye Jordan, a spokeswoman for state Atty. Gen. Bill Lockyer.

It’s hard “for people on the outside to have sympathy” for a jail inmate who commits suicide, said Lindsay M. Hayes, assistant director of the National Center on Institutions and Alternatives.

But the issue is a public concern, if only for coldly financial reasons: Victims’ families often file suit, potentially costing taxpayers millions of dollars if jailers are found to have failed in their duties.

Also, of the 38 suicide cases in 2001, the vast majority of inmates had not been convicted but were awaiting trial.

Records filed with the state Department of Justice by the counties where the suicides occurred showed that the victims were young and old, educated and unemployed, and accused of a gamut of crimes from petty theft to murder. A number suffered from mental problems that raised, or could have raised, a red flag to jailers.

There were high-profile inmates such as accused Sacramento multiple murderer Nikolay Soltys, who killed himself earlier this year despite being watched constantly by a surveillance camera.

Most, however, were little more than footnotes in the local paper, such as James Riberal, a 33-year-old construction worker with a drinking problem who hanged himself after being placed in a Stockton jail on a charge of petty theft.

Several were placed in special suicide-watch holding cells after their arrests, only to be moved to the general jail population, where they finally killed themselves.

“We know there are suicides occurring,” said William J. Crout, deputy director of the state Board of Corrections. “It’s not surprising [that the numbers are going up] given the number of individuals in county jails identified as mentally ill.”

The board’s latest survey of county jail conditions statewide shows that the number of inmates getting mental health treatment has more than doubled in just five years.

“There are a lot of people in jail who should be in mental institutions,” said Jordan, the Lockyer spokeswoman.

But Craig said the surge in jail suicides may also indicate that the profile of a suicidal inmate is changing, making it harder to spot those thinking of ending their lives. It has long been accepted wisdom, she said, that the best way to find out if an inmate is suicidal is to ask him or her. But in every case she was aware of, “the inmate is denying any suicide ideation.”

Although 38 suicides in one year may not seem like a large number, one way to put it into perspective is to compare the county jail totals with California’s 33 state prisons, where criminals are sent once they have been convicted of felonies.

Out of a prison population of 157,493 inmates last year, 21 killed themselves. That amounts to 13 per 100,000, comparable to the rate in the general population, Crout said. The suicide rate for the 73,000 county jail inmates serving time for misdemeanor offenses or awaiting trial on felony charges is 52 per 100,000--four times higher.

Counties contacted said they could not talk about individual cases. In several instances, lawsuits have been filed by victims’ families.

Other causes of death in jail besides suicide include accidents, illnesses and homicide at the hands of another inmate. But suicide has been a leading cause for many years.

In 1983, when the previous peak was reached, inmate suicides accounted for nearly half the total of 85 deaths in California jails. After a wave of wrongful death lawsuits, local jurisdictions took steps to bring down the number of inmates killing themselves.

Special suicide-watch cells were opened, jailers were instructed in how to spot a despondent inmate and bureaucratic red tape was snipped to give inmates easier access to doctors and medication.

“Compared to the late ‘70s and early ‘80s, jails are more professionally operated,” Crout said.

That new focus on inmate suicide brought quick results. While the jail population as a whole was exploding in California from about 30,000 to 70,000 between 1980 and 1990, the number of suicides was falling. By 1989, they had been cut in half, to 14, out of 68 jail deaths. In 1995, the numbers began moving upward again.

County jail inmates are different from state prisoners. Many are first-timers who may have more fragile personalities that can snap in a confined environment.

Ryan Patrick Covarrubias, 18, had been in the Contra Costa County jail three weeks awaiting trial on drug and vehicle code charges when he hanged himself with a bedsheet. The trigger? Possibly missing a visit from his girlfriend, jailers noted.

Jon Frampton, an accused 35-year-old child molester, killed himself after reportedly telling his cellmate he was frightened because a video of his victim was about to be shown in court.

In several instances, jailers appear to have had indications that the inmates might harm themselves, yet nothing seemed to have been done to prevent it.

Parents File Lawsuit

Covarrubias’ parents have filed suit, accusing jail personnel of giving him only a “superficial mental examination.”

He was not on suicide watch, even though he had previously been declared disabled by the state, suffering from depression and delusions.

The family of Joshua Daniel Lee also filed suit, accusing Los Angeles County authorities of “deliberate indifference” toward the severe mental problems that led to his suicide.

Lee, 22, of Hawthorne was hospitalized after exhibiting psychotic behavior. Yet his family was unable to convince the hospital to keep him.

Then on Jan. 30, 2001, Lee allegedly stabbed and killed a woman while trying to take her car at a Redondo Beach shopping mall.

After his arrest, Lee was at first placed in the mental ward of the Twin Towers jail complex in downtown Los Angeles. But after a few days, he was moved into the general jail population, according to reports. On Feb. 9, 2001, he was found hanging in his cell, with a bedsheet around his neck.

Jason Hoffman, 18, a senior at Granite Hills High School in El Cajon, had no criminal record, but was in San Diego County jail facing a 27-year sentence for shooting up his high school campus last year.

The product of divorce, he had been troubled for years. The teenager apparently had taken two guns to school after being turned down by the Navy, which he saw as a last chance to put some order in his life.

Although Hoffman wounded five people, an attorney for the family, Burton Jacobson, characterized the shooting as a cry for help from a very disturbed young man. According to Jacobson, Hoffman had attempted suicide at least once before succeeding in hanging himself Oct. 29.

Though he’d been on suicide watch, Hoffman was returned to the general jail population shortly before his death. “For some unexplained reason, they took him off suicide watch,” said Jacobson, who has filed a $10-million claim against San Diego County.

Probably the most-publicized, and one of the most hotly debated, suicides was that of Soltys, a 28-year-old Ukrainian immigrant accused of killing six members of his family in the Sacramento area.

Soltys’ suicide occurred despite the fact he was under the tightest security available. He was housed in the same cell and monitored by the same 24-hour camera that had watched mail-bomber Ted Kaczynski, said Soltys’ attorney, Tommy Clinkenbeard. Yet Soltys managed to fashion a hangman’s rope from a plastic bag and strips of cloth.

Difficult to Prevent

To some in law enforcement, Soltys’ death shows the folly of trying to prevent all jail suicides.

“No matter what we do, if someone is intent on killing themselves, they’re going to do it,” said Sheriff’s Capt. Jim Cooper, who oversees the Sacramento County Jail.

Clinkenbeard doesn’t buy it. “They had plenty of warning and notice as to the suicide risk,” he said.

The Sacramento County Jail is now taking steps to make future suicides less likely by redesigning bunks from which inmates were often hanging themselves. Soltys’ suicide was the ninth in the jail in less than a year.

The extent of Soltys’ mental problems were not known until after his death, but experts say more and more people with known psychiatric conditions are winding up in jail.

Since 1995, Crout said, the number of inmates across the state needing mental health attention has more than tripled--from 1,191 to 4,300.

“Only in the past five years have we seen such a dramatic increase in mentally ill [people] coming into jails,” said Hayes, a nationally recognized authority on jail suicide.

Even 4,300 is probably a low figure, said Rod Gottula, a jail suicide expert in Colorado. “You’re finally identifying them,” he said.

Authorities say there are two reasons that more mentally ill people are landing in jail: The tough law-and-order mentality of recent years has made authorities less tolerant of quality-of-life crimes such as aggressive panhandling and public drunkenness. At the same time, many county mental health treatment institutions have closed, leaving police no alternatives to jail.

Some plaintiff lawyers say jail medical care has gotten worse in recent years as more and more counties have hired outside contractors. The largest contractor in California is Monterey-based California Forensic Medical Group.

Company officials declined to talk about specific cases, but frankly described the difficulties of working with mentally ill inmates. “It’s a terrible business,” said Dr. Taylor Fithian, the company’s medical director.

Noting the “huge influx of people with major mental health problems,” Fithian estimated that 10% to 15% of the jail population has an “Axis One” diagnosis. That includes serious conditions such as major depression, schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. Anywhere from 10% to 35% of inmates are on psychotropic medication--”the most ever, ever, ever,” he said.

“Quite frankly, it would be nice to divest ourselves from this business,” Fithian said.

Spotting a suicidal inmate is made harder by the fact that some lie to avoid being placed in isolated suicide-watch cells.

Gottula said he overheard a jail nurse once asking an inmate if he felt suicidal. When the inmate answered yes, the nurse replied, “If you say yes, they’re going to strip you and put you in a bare cell.”

“OK, then I’m not,” the inmate said.

Hayes said he cannot be sure what is behind the current situation. “Sometimes there’s a reason for these things, and sometimes you just scratch your head,” he said.