By Michael O. Allen, Record Staff Writer | Thursday, March 5, 1992
The Record (New Jersey) | All Editions | NEWS | A01
Bergen County Prosecutor John J. Fahy announced Wednesday that he would investigate the deaths of seven county jail inmates including four suicides during the past 11 months.
Fahy said the investigation was sparked by the death last week of Robert Irving, who killed himself in his cell about eight hours after he was jailed on a charge of murdering his girlfriend’s grandmother.
“I see an inordinate number of deaths in the jail, including four suicides in less than a year,” Fahy said. “That is a very high number as compared to other county jails. I don’t know what the problem is, but I see that the numbers are way out of kilter, and it’s my duty to investigate and make sure that the procedures are working.
“The Bergen County Jail is overcrowded, but every jail in the state is overcrowded. I suspect that is a factor, but the other jails are not having the same problem with suicides.”
Fahy said he would hire an expert in jail management to look at the jail’s policies and procedures, the training of corrections officers, intake screening, and supervision of inmates once they’ve been processed. He said he wants to see if someone routinely keeps an eye on each inmate, if only to make sure the inmate is all right. A report should be completed in about six weeks, Fahy added.
“In fairness to the sheriff, he may be running a very good jail, and just as a matter of bad luck, there’s a lot of misfortune there. That’s a possibility,” the prosecutor said. “But it’s an inordinate number of deaths, and we want to take a look at that.”
Patricia Mulcahy, a spokeswoman for the state Department of Corrections, said the Passaic, Essex, Hudson, and Morris county jails reported no suicides during 1990 and 1991. In the state’s 12 adult prisons and three juvenile institutions, two suicides were reported in 1990 and one in 1991, she said.
Bergen County Sheriff Jack Terhune said Wednesday, his first day back to work after a vacation, that he had talked at length with Fahy and would cooperate fully.
“I welcome his investigation of the department’s policies and procedures,” Terhune said. “Since I’ve become sheriff, we have amended a number of procedures relating to our intake policies and our mental health unit.”
In all of the suicides, the jail staff followed established procedures, Terhune said. One other death was an accident, he said, and the other two resulted from preexisting medical conditions.
The changes made by Terhune included adding a second officer in the mental health unit at the jail annex. He said he is considering hiring a part-time, on-site psychiatrist to supplement the services provided by Bergen Pines County Hospital, along with renovation and possibly expansion of the mental health unit.
Assistant Deputy Public Advocate Audrey Bomse, who represents Bergen County Jail inmates in an ongoing lawsuit to reduce overcrowding there, also said she welcomes Fahy’s probe.
The number of suicides “obviously is evidence of desperation,” Bomse said. “I really don’t know what specifically causes that state of despair, why it should be so different from other jails.”
Bomse was critical in particular of the way the jail handled John Russell, a Fair Lawn resident who hanged himself with a shoelace in a shower in the mental health unit on Oct. 4. Russell had been admitted to Bergen Pines County Hospital on Aug. 27 and was released Sept. 30.
“His medical intake screening at Bergen Pines indicated that he had four previous suicide attempts,” Bomse said. “The day he was sent to the hospital, he had attempted suicide in the shower, in the exact same situation that he would later kill himself. They couldn’t have been alerted any more to the need for this one man to be watched.”
Terhune said Russell was put on suicide watch upon his return to the jail, and killed himself while corrections officers were distracted by another inmate’s suicide attempt.
“At the time, we did not take shoelaces from everyone committed to the Bergen County Jail or everyone in the mental unit. The policy has since been reviewed, and we now provide slip-on shoes to everyone in the mental unit,” the sheriff said.
Caption: COLOR PHOTO – “I see an inordinate number of deaths in the jail, including four suicides in less than a year. . . . It’s my duty to investigate.” Bergen County Prosecutor John J. Fahy
ID: 17370627 | Copyright © 1992, The Record (New Jersey)
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