Following Another Inmate Suicide, Sheriff Orders Review

INDIANAPOLIS -- Following another suicide at the Marion County jail, the sheriff is asking for an external review of how the jail can prevent inmates from killing themselves.

Interim public safety director David Wantz will lead the review board. Wantz, who steps down from the public safety department at the end of the year, says he’ll be looking for patterns and practices that can be changed or learned from.

"So I’ll naturally be asking questions about what kinds of evaluations are going on, what kinds of recommendations are being made, how that’s being communicated, what kinds of training are going on," he said in an interview.

There has been an average of two inmate suicides a year at the jail since 2010, according to the sherrif's office. The latest happened Monday afternoon when a 35-year-old inmate was found unresponsive in his cell and died at the hospital 12 hours later.

The suicides taking place in the jail are “disturbing and unacceptable,” sheriff John Layton said in a statement.