DETROIT (WXYZ) — In the two weeks since it opened, Wayne County’s new jail has seen floods, fights and an attempted suicide by an inmate.
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The turbulent rollout has caused frustration among deputies and lawyers, who say the state-of-the-art facility has not turned out to be the panacea that some officials promised.
“We were told that all of the things and issues that we had at the previous jails would not be an issue at the new facility,” said Allen Cox, president of the Wayne County Deputy Sheriff’s Association. “That has not been the case.”
The jail’s most urgent problem came Tuesday night, when an inmate facing a homicide charge was able to hang himself inside his cell. The jail was built with suicide-resistant measures to try to make self-harm more difficult.
That inmate, currently on life support, is in critical condition.
While it’s not known how quickly deputies discovered him, sources tell us he’d been placed on suicide precautions at least twice after multiple attempts or threats of suicide, but was later cleared.
Most recently, he put in a request for mental health treatment on September 8, then met with a nurse on the 9th. It’s not clear what came of the meeting, but he was not on suicide precautions the next day when he tried to take his life.
“If you said that it couldn’t happen and there were pre-emptive measures to ensure it not happening, then we have to go back and analyze what did transpire, how it transpired,” Cox said.
Since the jail opened, defense attorneys like David Cripps say they’ve heard constant complaints from inmates inside.
“I’ve been hearing from almost every client, there’s communication issues in terms of not being able to communicate to the outside world,” he said.
As a result, inmates have protested with fights and floods.
“Inmates are breaking sprinkler heads,” Cox said. “If your inmates inside your pod or ward are not happy, you’re going to have a rough shift. It’s going to be a rough 8-16 hours.”
Attorneys complain it’s been hard even to meet with their clients. Where the old jail had 25 booths to set up to meet about their cases, now there are only five.
Meetings that once happened in 15 minutes can now can take hours to begin.
“I mean, whose idea was that?” asked criminal defense attorney Gabi Silver. “How is that going to make anybody’s job easier or anybody’s access to their client easier?”
In response to questions about the problems associated with the jail’s opening, sheriff’s office spokesman Ed Foxworth referred 7 News Detroit to an earlier statement issued by county that said in part:
We understand, much like a new house, there are kinks that need to be worked out and our team, in partnership with the other stakeholders, are up to the task. As we look 6 months to a year from now, we look forward to sharing the stories of how citizens are experiencing an even greater level of service than what they already are.
Contact 7 Investigator Ross Jones at ross.jones@wxyz.com or at (248) 827-9466.