Jefferson County Sheriff Dave Stanko opted not to spend money on an outside investigator to look into the death of Thomas Lorecki, who died Sept. 17, 2016 after hanging himself in the Jefferson County Jail.

“I do go outside [of the county] if I think it’s necessary,” Stanko said.

In the case of Lorecki’s death, Stanko did not want to comment other than to say, “What I know about it is that my corrections deputies dotted their i’s and crossed their t’s.”

Stanko said he gave the incident to Sgt. Andy Pernsteiner to investigate. He said Pernsteiner has no direct connection to jail staff members and so would not have a conflict of interest in evaluating their performance. He said Pernsteiner has eight years of experience and is an operations supervisor for the sheriff’s department.

CRISIS CELL

Stanko noted that there is a crisis cell, where inmates can be separated from the other jail inmates, as well as two segregation cells.

The crisis cell has shatterproof windows in it – so deputies can look directly inside the cell. There also was a video monitor, and no vents are within reach. The crisis cell is used if an inmate is too intoxicated to be put into a segregation unit or a general population cell, is under medical or mental health observation, or is a danger to others or jail property, according to written guidelines.

Whenever an inmate is placed in the crisis cell, jail staff is directed to do a “direct observation” of the inmate every 15 minutes for as long as the person is in the cell.

“Direct observations mean the corrections officer on duty is to open the crisis cell door every 15 minutes, observe and document the condition of the inmate. This is not to be done by video monitoring,” the policy states.

Any inmate expressing a desire to commit suicide is given a suicide smock, which cannot be ripped, as well as blankets that cannot be ripped, according to jail staff.

“At no time will an inmate in crisis, having been placed on suicide watch, be removed and placed into general population prior to be evaluated and cleared by CDMHP [county-designated mental health professions]. This decision is not to be made by any corrections staff,” the policy states.

A segregation cell differs from a crisis cell mainly in that it does not have large windows, and jail staff are not required to look into the cell as often as in a crisis cell.

Lorecki was not in either a crisis cell or a segregation cell when he hung himself.

According to Pernsteiner’s report, Lorecki had been cleared by the mental health counselor to be in a general-population cell, which is not monitored as often as a crisis cell.

(Editor’s note: A story on a lawsuit filed against Jefferson County in the death of Thomas Lorecki was published in the July 19 Leader.)