CLEVELAND, Ohio — A Cuyahoga County Jail inmate is on life-support at a hospital after trying to commit suicide in his cell, officials told cleveland.com on Friday.
County spokeswoman Mary Louise Madigan said an inmate had tried to hang himself Thursday and was taken to MetroHealth. Jail documents obtained by cleveland.com identified the inmate as 27-year-old Brenden Kiekisz.
Sheriff’s deputies on Friday morning told Common Pleas Court Judge Michael Donnelly that Kiekisz was in critical condition and on life-support, Donnelly said in an interview.
Reached by telephone, Kiekisz’s brother, Brett, told cleveland.com that medical staff give Brendan a low chance of recovering.
“He’s going to be a vegetable the rest of his life or we’re going to have to pull the plug," Brett Kiekisz said.
Six inmates died in the county’s downtown Justice Center jail earlier this year, three of them having hanged themselves. A seventh inmate died in a suburban jail operated by the county.
After reviewing the county’s jail operations, the U.S. Marshals Service reported last month that conditions at the downtown jail are “inhumane” and that 55 other inmates have attempted suicide in the past year.
Kiekisz was booked into jail on Christmas Day on suspicion of violating the terms of his court-ordered drug intervention program, court records show. If he had completed the program, he would have erased his 2016 conviction for heroin and fentanyl possession.
At a hearing on Thursday, Donnelly ruled that Kiekisz had not violated the terms of the program, which would have reinstituted the felony charge. Instead, Donnelly ordered that Kiekisz be sent from the jail to an in-patient treatment center in Highland Hills.
But Kiekisz was not immediately transferred to the treatment center. Hours later, at 10:56 p.m., he was found hanging in his cell, according to a grievance document in which corrections officials detailed the attempted suicide.
Kiekisz also had attempted suicide two days before he was booked into the jail, according to the grievance document obtained by Cleveland.com.
Kiekisz suffered from mental illnesses, including bipolar disorder and depression, according to the records.
Kiekisz was placed in a cell in a upper-level bunk at the jail, according to the records. The cell was in what is known as a double-podded area, where one corrections officer was responsible for supervising Kiekisz and about 100 other inmates at the same time.
Issues with double- and quadruple-podding in the jail has been a concern as the daily population of the jail has increased in the wake of the county taking in suspects arrested by Cleveland police.
Correction officers have filed numerous grievances over double-podding, arguing that it jeopardizes the health and safety of themselves and inmates.
Double-podding is caused by understaffing, a problem the county has been aware of for some time and is trying to address. In its Nov. 21 report, the U.S. Marshals Service identified understaffing as one of dozens of issues that contribute to “inhumane” conditions at the jail.
Cuyahoga County prosecutors have called several people with knowledge of the jail to testify before a grand jury, including former jail medical official Gary Brack. He was removed from his job in May after speaking publicly about concerns over inmate health care and other conditions at the jail.
The county has taken steps since the U.S. Marshals report to remedy some issues, however, none have involved changes in medical or mental healthcare. The county is partnering with MetroHealth to take over all medical operations at the jail. MetroHealth currently oversees some medical staff at the jail, and the county oversees nursing.
During Thursday’s court hearing, Donnelly said, Kiekisz reported that he had overdosed on heroin and was taken to a hospital, where deputies arrested him for failing to report to his probation officer as part of his intervention program.
The only question Kiekisz asked in court, according to Donnelly, was how long it would take deputies to transfer him from the jail to the treatment center in Highland Hills.
“I had no indication he would take any measure like that,” Donnelly said. “I wish I knew what was going through his head and I could go back and say something to him, or take action.”
At the hearing, Donnelly also ordered Kiekisz to be screened for possible entry into the court’s specialized docket for defendants suffering drug addiction.