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

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

the third Holding Center suicide in four months.

These events unfolded Thursday a day after the hanging death in Erie County&#8217s 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 intends to place

inmates who are on drug detoxification under constant watch. Howard again endorsed the

county&#8217s 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.

Amherst police acknowledged they did not tell Holding Center personnel that

Wednesday&#8217s victim, Jeremy Kiekbush, 29, 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&#8217s personnel to ensure that the Holding Center receives such information, as it

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

A 10 percent raise for the sheriff&#8217s jail superintendent, Robert A. Koch Jr.,

was again put aside in the Erie County Legislature. The raise would have brought Koch&#8217s

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

wasn&#8217t the time to consider it.

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 jails 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.

&#8220It is time for the confrontational stance of this administration to end,&#8221

Poloncarz said, &#8220and 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.&#8221

&bullThe mother of one recent suicide victim, Adam Murr, 31, a robbery suspect who hanged

himself in the Holding Center in December, said she believes the federal government should

turn up the pressure.

&#8220I got one hour&#8217s sleep last night after hearing about this latest kid who

died,&#8221 Faye Johanson said. &#8220It&#8217s a travesty that he died, and it&#8217s a

travesty that Adam died, and it&#8217s a travesty that Daniel Nye died.&#8221

&#8220I 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,&#8221 she said. &#8220Three young men in the last four months.&#8221

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&#8217s

jails need no special Justice Department attention with respect to beatings, maintenance,

health care, mental health care and suicide prevention.

Green had said the county&#8217s suicide-prevention measures are more than adequate, and

she asked U.S. District Judge William M. Skretny to dismiss the Justice Department suit.

Skretny has yet to rule on that matter, or the Justice Department&#8217s subsequent offer to

let its suicide-prevention expert examine the facilities.

Murr&#8217s death was followed by the Feb. 13 suicide of 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.

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

Monday in Niagara County, was found hanging from a bedsheet. 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&#8217s wife believed he might

harm himself and that after the chase Kiekbush stated he wished that police had killed him.

&#8220No, we didn&#8217t tell them,&#8221 Timothy Green said. &#8220If they would like to

create a real system &#8212 not a word-of-mouth system &#8212 where we can give them copies of

the paperwork, I&#8217d be all for that. We&#8217re willing to sit down with Tim Howard and

come up with a better system.&#8221

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 bedsheet in his

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

&#8220Since 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&#8217s Office &#8212 most recently yesterday,&#8221 Beilein said Thursday.

While the Commission of Correction examines all such deaths, Beilein said he ordered a

comprehensive review of the suicide screening program at the county jails.

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. He also said he might propose placing two inmates in each

cell because suicides then become more rare.

&#8220We 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,&#8221 he said. &#8220And that certainly is a possibility of

what happened most recently here.&#8221

Howard said the Justice Department is over-reaching by expecting to send its lawyers and

its suicide-prevention expert, Lindsay M. Hayes of the National Center for Institutions and

Alternatives, into the jails without a county lawyer present.

&#8220I would have to ask the general public, who do you trust more, the federal

government, the state government or your local government?&#8221 Howard said.

&#8220And I think most people I talk to say they have most trust in their local

government.&#8221

News Staff Reporter Gene Warner contributed to this report.