Category: County Jails|Custodial Death|Outside Texas|Suicide

On Thanksgiving Day 2017, 43-year-old Lisa McCray was visiting her mother in Ohio and went with her mom and a friend to a casino. While there, McCray was arrested, along with her friend, for alleged disorderly conduct intoxication and booked into in Toledo’s Lucas County Jail. According to Internal Affairs Captain Richard Grove, McCray was moved into a holding cell after being booked and went through required screening. She reportedly showed no red flags for being possibly suicidal. He said the reason she was placed in the holding cell was because she was being disruptive. There is a working phone in the holding cell, and Grove said McCray used the phone cord to attempt suicide. This reportedly occurred within about 90 seconds of speaking with a corrections officer. At 4 a.m. on Friday, November 24, she was discovered unresponsive. McCray was transported to Mercy Health St. Vincent Medical Center, where she died within a 24-hour period.

The incident is being investigated. In the meantime, the autopsy has been completed. According to the coroner’s office, McCray’s death was self-inflicted with a phone cord. A suicide ruling or any other means of death weren’t specified because the investigation and toxicology results are pending.

In Texas, as in jails across the nation, there are procedures designed to prevent custodial deaths, including jail suicides. Prisoners are placed on stricter watch when there are indications that they may try to harm themselves.

As with every post on this website, we are only providing information in this post and do not make any allegation or assertion that anyone acted inappropriately or engaged in misconduct.

–Guest Contributor

In Wayne County, Michigan, an alarming surge in jail suicides is causing widespread concern. Over the past 13 months, there have been eight suicides in Wayne County jails. This number is much higher than in facilities across the nation with ten times the number of inmates or more. At the same time this has occurred, Wayne County is having difficulty filling about 200 deputy positions. In addition, the jails are reportedly in a state of worsening disrepair and plans have stalled to build a new jail.

One of the inmates who recently committed suicide was Billy Adams. He was jailed for a probation violation. After being found hanging in his jail cell, he was hospitalized for 10 days. He was kept alive by a ventilator the entire time, and his family made the difficult decision to take him off of life support.

Most people in jails have not yet had their cases heard in court. Whether they are guilty or not doesn’t matter, as far as the responsibility jails have to keep them safe while incarcerated.

According to Wayne County Circuit Court Judge Timothy Kenny, the jails are built in a way that the sheriff’s staff has difficulty monitoring the inmates effectively, to ensure no one is harming themselves or others.

These statistics for the past 13 months provide all the evidence needed that something is clearly going wrong:

• Wayne County Jail has an average daily population of 1,750; and there have been 8 suicides.
• Cook County Jail has an average daily population of 9,600; and there have been no suicides.
• New York City Department of Corrections has an average daily population of 10,400; and there have been no suicides.
• Los Angeles County Jail has an average daily population of 17,300; and there have been 5 suicides.

As with every post on this website, we are only providing information in this post and do not make any allegation or assertion that anyone acted inappropriately or engaged in misconduct.

–Guest Contributor