Oct 21, 2015 4 min read

Three inmate suicides this year have catapulted the Washington County jail into the spotlight, and at an annual public hearing Wednesday on the correctional facility’s budget, the warden said he is searching for possible solutions.

The latest inmate to hang himself at the jail using a bed sheet was Darius Rawls, 20, of 806 Crest Ave., Charleroi, who was pronounced dead at Washington Hospital Oct. 15, two days after being arrested on federal drug charges.

City police and the U.S. attorney’s office are looking into Rawls’ death. Warden John Temas did not present a line item for suicide prevention, but said, in response to a question from a reporter, that he will ask the county to advertise, as soon as possible, for proposals “that would better enhance our program of handling inmates with mental health problems.”

For some time, the jail has contracted with a psychiatrist and psychiatric nurse. Temas, however, is seeking proposals that factor research and information-gathering into the costs and services necessary to evaluate the mental health program at the jail and provide a guide to what steps can be taken in-house and under contract.

The coroner placed the window of Rawls’ hanging at between 12:10 and 1:17 p.m.

“There is no reasonable expectation of privacy in a correctional facility,” said Deputy Warden Edward Strawn. “We can put that camera on, but there are more reasons why we cannot.”

The jail can use surveillance in a cell only if an inmate was identified as being at-risk.

Temas noted Mayview State Hospital, which was the state mental hospital and forensic unit closest to Washington County, closed in December 2008, and since then, the Washington County jail has seen “a spike in inmates with mental health conditions” and is having to deal with questions “as to why recent events occurred.”

The budget hearing gave some insight into the cost to taxpayers of incarcerating those charged and convicted of crimes.

The proposed 2016 jail budget, for which preparations began before the latest two deaths at the jail, is $7.851 million, a 6 percent increase over the budgeted $7.4 million for 2015.

There are three full-time nurses at the jail, but Temas is requesting a fourth full-time position to cover for times when the three have days off, are on vacation or are ill. The county was attempting to employ visiting nurses to cover those times at a cost of $20 per hour. “There will be savings in overtime,” Temas said.

The average cost of caring for each inmate per day at the jail, at $45, is the third-lowest in Pennsylvania. Average daily population is between 390 and 400 in a facility that was built to house 358 inmates.

All the suicides this year were male inmates, but the female inmate population is exploding, the warden said.

The jail was built 20 years ago to house two dozen female prisoners, but has “double-bunked” to increase space for the burgeoning number of incarcerated women, which stood at 59 at the end of September.

The Washington County Prison Board entered into a contract earlier this year with the Greene County Jail to house prisoners, and in July through September, it did so at an average cost of $9,000 per month. All the Washington County inmates for whom the Greene County facility was billing were female.

“It’s all drugs,” said Temas. Many of the female inmates arrive at the jail pregnant and addicted to opiates, such as heroin, and UPMC-Magee Women’s Hospital, Pittsburgh, is the only one that will them, adding to the expense because the hospital is outside Washington County.

The jail employs 54 full-time correctional officers. Those hired for a training class become part-timers when completing their training, but instead of becoming full-time guards at the county jail, they often get jobs at nearby state prisons or find more lucrative work with abundant overtime pay and better benefits at other jails and state prisons in Pennsylvania, West Virginia or Maryland, Temas said.

The inmate deaths also have taken a toll on the jail staff, according to administrators.

On Feb. 2, Richard A. Kempf, 31, of Washington, was awaiting trial on burglary and related charges when was found hanging from a sheet in his cell. Kempf’s family filed a wrongful death suit against the county in May.

On Sept. 26, Gregory Michaux, 38, of Clarksville, was awaiting trial on aggravated assault and other charges when was found hanging from a sheet in his cell. Michaux’s mother recently initiated an online fundraising effort for a private autopsy and to initiate a wrongful death suit.

Michaux’s death is being investigated internally, by city police and by the Washington County coroner’s office, which is awaiting a toxicology report.