Two state jail inspectors arrived from Albany. The Erie County sheriff said his entire

office sympathizes with any family suffering a sudden loss. And a mother expressed her anguish

today over the third Holding Center suicide in four months.

These events unfolded today in the wake of Wednesday's hanging death in Erie County's

busy and controversial downtown jail:

The chairman of the state Commission of Correction, Thomas A. Beilein, sent two

inspectors to the Holding Center to immediately investigate the latest death and begin a

sweeping review of the suicide-screening program at the jail and Correctional Facility in

Alden.

Sheriff Timothy B. Howard welcomed the inspectors and said his staff already intends

to place inmates on drug detoxification under constant watch. Howard continued to endorse the

county's legal strategy to fight a U.S. Justice Department lawsuit over jail conditions and to

deflect its offer of a suicide-prevention expert if the expert expects unfettered access to

the jails.

The Amherst police acknowledged they did not tell Holding Center personnel that

Wednesday's victim, 29-year-old Jeremy Kiekbush, was a clear suicide risk because there is no

system for passing along the information.

Assistant Police Chief Timothy M. Green said the Amherst department is willing to work with

sheriff's personnel to ensure that the Holding Center receives such details, as it does now

from Buffalo police and from Erie County deputies with their suspects.

A 10 percent raise for the sheriff's jails superintendent, Robert A. Koch Jr., was

again put aside in the Erie County Legislature. The raise would have brought Koch's base

salary to almost $105,000 a year, but several legislators, as well as Howard, agreed this

wasn't the time to consider the matter.

Republicans and Democrats in the Legislature approved a statement, 11-4, imploring

the sheriff, County Executive Chris Collins and County Attorney Cheryl A. Green to, among

other things, open the doors to the suicide-prevention expert. So did Comptroller Mark C.

Poloncarz, who repeated his call for Green to resign, saying she has given poor advice in the

matter.

"It is time for the confrontational stance of this administration to end," Poloncarz said,

"and for the county to allow the federal and state governments complete and unfettered access

to the jails to help the county address the issues and problems at each facility."

The mother of one recent victim, Adam Murr, a 31-year-old bank robbery suspect who

hanged himself inside the jail in December, said she believes the federal government should

turn up the pressure.

"I got one hour's sleep last night after hearing about this latest kid who died," Faye

Johanson said today. "It's a travesty that he died, and it's a travesty that Adam died, and

it's a travesty that Daniel Nye died.

"I have recommended to someone in the federal government that they bring in the National

Guard and go in there and find out what is going on, because this is ridiculous," she said.

"Three young men in the last four months."

Suicide with shoelaces On Dec. 17 Murr tied his shoelaces to

a vent in his cell and hanged himself. He was wheeled out of the facility just one day after

Green told a federal judge the county's jails need no special U.S. Justice Department

attention with respect to beatings, maintenance, health care, mental health care and suicide

prevention.

Green had said the county's suicide-prevention measures are more than adequate, and she

asked District Judge William M. Skretny to dismiss the entire Justice Department complaint

against the county and its officials.

Skretny has yet to rule on that matter, or the Justice Department's subsequent offer to let

its suicide-prevention expert examine the facilities. The judge did not return a Buffalo News

telephone message today.

Murr's death was followed by the suicide Feb. 13 by Nye, 26, of Cheektowaga. Nye, held on

minor charges, also created a noose with his shoelaces and tied them to bars on his cell

window.

Then Wednesday, Kiekbush, an inmate who had attempted suicide by cop during a high-speed

chase days earlier, was found hanging from a bed sheet. Despite his wish for death, he had

been placed under general supervision in the Holding Center and not on the constant watch

reserved for inmates who might harm themselves.

Amherst police had not passed along information that Kiekbush's wife believed he might harm

himself and that, after the chase in Niagara County, Kiekbush stated he wished that police had

killed him.

"No, we didn't tell them," said Green, the assistant police chief. "If they would like to

create a real system — not a word-of-mouth system — where we can give them copies

of the paperwork, I'd be all for that. We're willing to sit down with [Sheriff] Tim Howard and

come up with a better system."

In the weeks between the deaths of Murr and Kiekbush, a Holding Center inmate already on

suicide watch swallowed a quantity of aspirin in an attempt to kill herself. And last week

officers in the Correctional Facility cut down an inmate hanging from a bed sheet in his

suicide attempt, which Green has called an attempt to get better housing and food.

"Since December, five inmates at Erie County correctional facilities have attempted to

commit suicide, and three of those five inmates have taken their own life while in the custody

of the Sheriff's Office — most recently [Wednesday]," Beilein said today.

Audio of sheriff's full news conference

Heroin use cited While the Commission of Correction examines

all such deaths, Beilein said he ordered a comprehensive review of the suicide screening

program at the county correctional facilities.

At a news conference, Howard expressed his appreciation and pledged cooperation with the

state team. He said the last three suicide victims appeared to have histories of heroin use,

so the jail will place an estimated 130 to 140 inmates a day in constant-watch units while

they are on detoxification programs. Howard also said he might propose placing two inmates in

cells because suicides then become more rare.

"We also know that there is some scientific theory out there that suicides are contagious.

When they have occurred in a school they are often followed by a second and third suicide

within the same school," he said. "And that certainly is a possibility of what happened most

recently here."

Then, like Green has done with her legal arguments, Howard said the U.S. Justice Department

is over-reaching by expecting to send its lawyers and its suicide-prevention expert, the

nationally recognized Lindsay M. Hayes of the National Center for Institutions and

Alternatives, into the jails without a county lawyer present.

"I would have to ask the general public, who do you trust more, the federal government, the

state government or your local government?" Howard said.

"And I think most people I talk to say they have most trust in their local government."

News Staff Reporter Gene Warner contributed to this report.