A commission warned two years ago that cells in the Erie County Holding Center offer

suicidal inmates too many ways to hang themselves.

Nooses can be tied to steel beds, loosened wall plates or bars on windows, said the

National Commission on Correctional Health Care.

Daniel Nye, 26, of Euclid Avenue, Cheektowaga, became the latest Holding Center inmate to

take his life by hanging in his cell Saturday. He used shoelaces tied to a bar on his cell's

window, according to a jail staff member, who asked to remain unidentified because he lacks

authority to speak publicly.

Nye, who was declared dead by doctors at Buffalo General Hospital, might have been dealing

with heroin withdrawal, putting him at greater risk of suicide.

When Cheektowaga police charged him Friday with forgery and carrying illegal equipment in

his car, they also found him with a pill used to treat heroin addiction and added a count of

drug possession.

Researchers say inmates commit suicide at a higher rate than society at large because of

the large portion of inmates with mental illness; the traumatic effect of incarceration; and

the enforced withdrawal from alcohol and drugs.

Just weeks ago, according to the jail employee, a high-level administrator sent around an

advisory informing the jail staff of the deep lows that hit heroin addicts coming off the

drug.

Mary Murray, a spokeswoman for Erie County Sheriff Timothy B. Howard, who is responsible

for the jail, did not return telephone messages seeking further information Monday. The

Buffalo News identified the inmate through other law enforcement sources.

After an autopsy, Nye's body was released Monday to a funeral home in Ellwood City, Pa.,

near the home of his mother and the community where he once resided.

By the U.S. Justice Department's count, Nye is the ninth Holding Center inmate to die by

hanging since 2003. He also is the fourth Holding Center inmate to commit suicide by hanging

since Justice Department lawyers in 2008 tried to inspect the jail because of its suicide rate, among other things.

The sheriff and County Executive Chris Collins, on the advice of County Attorney Cheryl A.

Green, have denied the Justice Department's requests to inspect the Holding Center in downtown

Buffalo and the Correctional Facility in Alden without a county lawyer shadowing the federal

personnel.

The Justice Department later filed a lawsuit alleging that Erie County fails to protect

the rights of its inmates. Green, in moving to dismiss the lawsuit, told a federal judge Dec. 16 that the county meets the state's suicide-prevention requirements.

The next day, however, Adam Murr, a 31-year-old bank robbery suspect, hanged himself with

shoelaces tied to a Holding Center air vent.

The following month, the sheriff's Jail Management Division told state authorities about a

suicide attempt by Marcia Mitchell, a 29-year-old accused of trying to smother her baby. Even

though she was already under constant watch because she was deemed a suicide risk, Mitchell

was able to swallow a quantity of aspirin in a futile attempt to take her life. She recovered and was back in the Holding Center days later.

Citing those events, the Justice Department on Feb. 4 moved for "expedited discovery" so

that one of its expert consultants could, under a judge's order, promptly assess the jail's

efforts to prevent suicides. Justice Department lawyers say they want the Holding Center

inspected no later than March 22 by Lindsay M. Hayes, a project director for the National

Center for Institutions and Alternatives.

Hayes, according to his statement for U.S. District Judge William M. Skretny, has 32 years

of experience related to suicide prevention in jails, prisons and juvenile facilities.

In his statement, Hayes focused on the National Commission on Correctional Health Care's

2008 report for Erie County about its Holding Center.

"Indeed, according to the NCCHC's 2008 report, "the cells used to house suicidal inmates

were not "suicide-proof,' " he wrote. "There were multiple ways to facilitate committing

suicide, including using the steel beds, wall plates that are lifted from the wall,

handicapped bars, bars on windows, etc.' "

Nye's suicide was strikingly similar to Joann Jesse's death in the Holding Center in 2008.

Jesse, 48, who was being held on a theft charge, told jailers as she was brought into the busy

facility that she used heroin and benzodiazepines.

A State Commission of Correction report on Jesse's death describes her has becoming

increasingly worried that she would not be freed on bail. She asked her son to smuggle in

drugs for her. He refused.

On the afternoon of March 30, 2008, Jesse was found kneeling on her bed with her neck in

a sheet tied to the bars above her cell door. She had turned blue, and an emergency response

team could not save her.

Before Nye's suicide Saturday, Hayes said in his statement that the suicide rate at the

Holding Center was almost five times the national average as determined by the U.S. Bureau of

Justice Statistics, which measures the number of suicides for every 100,000 inmates.

Former inmate James H. Gilchriese agrees that Holding Center cells offer opportunities for

suicides. Gilchriese is the Vietnam War veteran who stopped traffic along the Niagara Thruway

in Buffalo on the evening of May 12, 2008. He held a gun to his neck as police tried to

negotiate.

He was released from the Holding Center five months later, with State Supreme Court

Justice John L. Michalski crediting him for his continuing work with a half-dozen veterans

organizations nationwide.

During part of his confinement, Gilchriese was under constant watch. At other times, he

was in a pod-style cell, of the sort Nye occupied when he was found hanging Saturday.

Audio: Former inmate James H. Gilchriese talks about the pod-style cell

Gilchriese said inmates become depressed when they realize that there is no one on the

outside pulling for them. They become detached from family and friends.

"They are in there, and they don't have anybody on the outside," he said. And he agreed

that those cells provide "a lot of opportunity for suicide. Very much so."