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68 °F Forecast | Road Cams Sunday, September 12, 2004 Today's News | Classifieds | Autos | Homes | Jobs | Tempo | Health | Community | Home Delivery SECTIONS Home Page Local News Sports Business Obituaries Life Opinion - Politics Tempo AP News Weather Classified Archives Site Map SPECIAL SECTIONS Since We Asked Outdoor Journal Prime Times Wellness Connection Readers' Choice Real Estate Showcase Joy Magazine Homelife Magazine Wedding Guide Rogue Valley's Finest EXTRA Newspaper in Education Personals Movie Times TV Times E The People MARKETPLACE Find a Car Find a Home Find a Job Classifieds Place an ad eSouthernOregon Automotive Communities Entertainment Publications Recreation Calendar CUSTOMER SERVICE Frequent Questions Advertising Information Home Delivery Employment Contact Us Media Kit Network Affiliate Oregon Road Conditions & Cams Email Story to a Friend February 1, 2004 Jackson County sheriff�s Lt. Dan Penland, commander of the county�s jail in Medford, holds a ruler next to a jail cell�s air vent to show how narrow the slats are. Inmates have drapped besheets through such vents to commit suicide. Mail Tribune / Jim Craven Two self-inflicted deaths within 15 months lead the Jackson County Sheriff’s Department to review the jail’s ... Suicide safeguards Douglas County officials say they put inmates on suicide watch more often By ANITA BURKE Mail Tribune Alone in a Jackson County Jail cell awaiting trial on child sexual abuse charges that could have sent him to prison for years, Charles Robert Shaw, 40, hanged himself from an air vent early Jan. 9. The Medford man’s death was the second jail suicide in fewer than 15 months by an inmate facing serious charges that could have led to long prison sentences. Both he and Paul Ernest Leyva, 39, of Red Bluff, Calif., who died in October 2002, used bedding to hang themselves from cell vents, which they reached by standing on a nearby toilet. The jail’s only other suicide, in 1984, was committed the same way. The deaths have prompted questions. The Jackson County Sheriff’s Department is in the midst of a review of Shaw’s death, said Lt. Dan Penland, jail commander. The county’s major assault and death investigation team, which includes detectives from the sheriff’s department and Medford police, completed a report that is the first step in the review process. Investigators interviewed inmates and deputies and concluded no criminal or negligent actions contributed to Shaw’s death. Advertisement Local officials say the recent suicides are isolated incidents and they defend their policies that manage inmate safety. However, jail officials in neighboring Douglas County, who institute three times more suicide watches than Jackson County, say they would have handled the situation differently. The Jackson County Jail’s suicide prevention and intervention policy, instituted in 1986 and revised in 1995 and 2001, lists warning signs deputies should watch for. Most suicides happen within the first 24 hours of incarceration. But other high-risk times include when sentencing approaches or at other deadlines in the legal system, if an inmate gets bad news from home, and when there have been fights or disciplinary actions, the policy notes. Shaw had been jailed since Medford police arrested him Sept. 3 on sodomy, sexual abuse and sexual penetration charges. In letters he wrote to judges as his case crept through the system, Shaw claimed that in November he was attacked, sexually assaulted and taunted by other inmates in the area where sex offenders are housed. Jail officials confirm that Shaw was briefly placed in an isolation cell in early December because of conflicts with other inmates, but they declined to disclose details about the incident. Later in December, Shaw was put on suicide watch but was returned to a regular cell the next day. Two days before his death, Shaw wrote a letter to the judge hearing his case, pleading to be released for a few days. "My mental state is deteriorating," he wrote as he detailed his problems in jail and at home, where his wife had announced she was leaving him and planned to throw away his possessions. Jackson County Circuit Court Judge Lorenzo Mejia said that while inmates often write letters to judges, he didn’t remember ever receiving one quite like Shaw’s. He also recalled Shaw begging for release in court in a whimpering manner that stands out in the judge’s mind. "It’s obviously a tragedy that he felt so despondent," said Mejia, who received the letter after Shaw killed himself. Mejia said he could not have responded to Shaw’s release request and complaints unless they had been formally introduced to the court and hearings scheduled. Shaw was next set to appear in court for a pre-trial hearing Jan. 12. Mejia thought that at one of Shaw’s court appearances, he had talked about making sure Shaw received appropriate mental health care, but in the flood of cases he hears, he couldn’t recall any details. "I normally would not get involved in management of the jail," Mejia said. At the jail, deputies had previous concerns about Shaw’s mental health, too. In late December, deputies found death-related writings and drawings of tombstones on envelopes Shaw was sending out of the jail, the investigators’ report said. They placed him on suicide watch about 4 p.m. Dec. 30 and he remained there until noon the next day, Penland said. On suicide watch, inmates are placed in an isolation cell and checked at least every 15 minutes until they are evaluated by a mental health worker. In the rest of the jail, deputies check inmates hourly. The isolation cells have only a mattress, with no bunk. Inmates on suicide watch are given stiff, quilted clothing and blankets that can’t be torn or twisted to make ropes. Dennis McNamara, a Jackson County Mental Health social worker who has worked at the jail for three and a half years, evaluated Shaw and determined he wasn’t suicidal, the investigators’ report said. Shaw returned to a regular cell. Deputies and fellow inmates said Shaw was upset because his wife was leaving him, but behaved normally in the week and a half before his death, according to the report. In 2003, jail records show deputies put selected inmates on suicide watch 81 times, down slightly from 104 times the year before. "We like to look at how many (potential suicides) we’ve prevented," Penland said, noting that the jail has about 10,000 lodgings annually, many of them involving people with mental health and substance abuse problems. "We have a pretty acceptable safety record," said Sheriff Mike Winters. Both Penland and Winters said the design of air vents in cells was informally reviewed after previous suicides and likely will get another look. In all three of the jail’s suicides, inmates hung themselves using bedsheets strung through slats in the vents. However, the vents are approved for use in jails and were designed to fit the building’s ventilation needs, Winters said. "We don’t want to lose focus on the need for interviewing, evaluating and monitoring inmates to prevent suicide," Penland said. "We want to identify people at risk, not focus on specific events," he added, noting that inmates have attempted suicide by other means in jail. Still, concerns about hangings prompted the sheriff’s department to buy hook-shaped knives designed to safely release a hanging body a year ago, Penland said. "It sounds like they need some brainstorming down there," said Sgt. John Garcia at the Douglas County Jail, where no inmates have committed suicide in the last decade. The Douglas County Jail can house 244 inmates, compared with 255 here, and last year had about 8,000 lodgings. The Douglas County Jail’s policy for screening potentially suicidal inmates and placing them on suicide watch is similar to that in Jackson County. Such watches typically are performed about 30 times a month, Garcia said. At that rate, Douglas County jailers would institute roughly 360 suicide watches annually, well above Jackson County’s average, which has hovered around 100 watches annually over the past 10 years. Shaw’s impending pre-trial hearing, conflicts with inmates, the severed relationship with his wife and death-related writings are red flags that likely would have landed Shaw on suicide watch in the Douglas County Jail, Garcia said. As in Jackson County, suicidal inmates in Douglas County remain closely monitored on watch in one of eight isolation cells until cleared by a mental health professional, he said. That can be hours, days, weeks or the entire time the person in jail, he said. Some inmates with a history of suicide attempts are automatically placed on watch. Even with a mental health clearance, inmates won’t be returned to a regular cell if jailers have any doubts, Garcia said. Penland said deputies here are willing to keep inmates on suicide watch if they see extraordinary risk, but with only three isolation cells, they strive to integrate inmates into the rest of the jail when possible. McNamara said most inmates spend only a few days in an isolated and uncomfortable watch cell before they renounce their suicidal thoughts. Jail officials say they take the recent suicides seriously and will try to learn from the experience. "We’re very progressive. When anything like this happens we always sit down to see what we can do," Penland said. "We feel we can learn from everything." In the current sheriff’s department review, jail workers will write reports about their interactions with Shaw, and the deputy medical examiner also must submit a report, Penland said. Then, Penland will go over all the reports, compare the actions taken with the jail’s policies and complete a summary of what went wrong, what went right and whether any changes are recommended. That report won’t be done for weeks, he said. Reach reporter Anita Burke at 776-4459, or e-mail [email protected] Suicides at the Jackson County Jail August 1984 — Rory Allen Carroll, 19, of Medford, hanged himself with a bedsheet tied to an air vent. October 2002 — Paul Ernest Leyva, 39, of Red Bluff, Calif., hanged himself with a bedsheet tied to an air vent above the toilet in his cell. He was arrested on a warrant charging him with assaulting his wife with a deadly weapon and was fighting extradition. He would have faced at least 25 years in prison if convicted under California’s "three strikes" law. His death was one of just three jail suicides in Oregon that year, according to state statistics. January 2004 — Charles Robert Shaw, 40, of Medford, hanged himself with a bedsheet threaded through his jail cell’s air vent. He faced more than eight years in prison if convicted of first-degree sodomy, sexual abuse and unlawful sexual penetration. His trial had been postponed and he was set to attend a pre-trial hearing the next Monday. — From Mail Tribune archives Mail Tribune Home Local News | Sports | Business | Obituaries | Life Opinion - Politics | AP News | Archives | Site Map E Southern Oregon | Classified Copyright © 1997-2004 Mail Tribune. All rights reserved. Privacy Policy | Terms & Conditions Website Feedback ADVERTISERS A D V E R T I S E R S SPECIAL SECTIONS Auto Finder Job Finder Home Finder Joy Magazine Homelife Magazine Tempo Readers' Choice Real Estate Showcase Since We Asked Outdoor Journal Moving to Southern Oregon? Volunteer Opportunities