In the six years Bill Jenkins has served as the jailer of Logan County, there has not been a suicide in the Logan County Detention Center. He notes there have been those who had tried to commit suicide, but none were successful in their attempts.

When a prisoner is brought into a jail, he is evaluated and asked if he is suicidal. Jenkins said a potentially suicidal inmate will be placed in isolation. While in isolation on a suicide watch, inmates are physically checked on every 15 minutes, and everything they could use to take their own life, including bed linens, is removed from the cell.

Jenkins, however, believes in some instances it is better to place the inmate in the general population instead of isolation. Several times, other inmates have alerted deputies to a suicide attempt.

Statistics seem to support Jenkins' belief. There have been 17 suicides in Kentucky's county jails from January 1999 through June 2001. Eleven of those 17 were in isolation.

Thirteen of those committing suicide did so with bedding; two with clothing, and two with shoestrings.

The average age of those suicides was 33; 16 were male and one female.

A prisoner coming into the Logan County Detention Center evaluated to be at an extremely high risk of committing suicide will be placed in the detox tank, which is adjacent to the booking desk. This prevents the inmate from being out of a deputy's sight at any time.

Kentucky's jail standards were established in 1983, and they appear to be insufficient when compared to other states.

One area in which Kentucky is lacking is in its policies related to preventing suicide. Some states are required to have detailed policies; Kentucky merely requires jails to have emergency response procedures.

Training is another area in which the state may be lacking. The American Correctional Association, the nation's largest accrediting body for correctional facilities, recommends that all jail officers be trained in suicide precautions and be able to recognize signs of suicide risk.

Kentucky, however, requires no suicide prevention training. New jail officers are required to undergo only 16 hours of basic training which does not even cover suicide prevention.

Stats on the 17 suicides in county jails reveal inmates will execute every avenue when attempting suicide.

Of the 17 who were successful, five did so from an air vent; five from bars; three from light fixture; one from a window; one from a shelf; one from a bunk and one from a smoke detector.