{"id":2452480,"date":"2019-12-21T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2019-12-21T07:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.aspentimes.com\/?p=318060"},"modified":"2019-12-21T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2019-12-21T07:00:00","slug":"report-pitkin-county-inmate-who-died-by-suicide-went-unchecked-for-50-minutes-no-discipline-handed-down-sheriff-says","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/local-news\/report-pitkin-county-inmate-who-died-by-suicide-went-unchecked-for-50-minutes-no-discipline-handed-down-sheriff-says\/","title":{"rendered":"Report: Pitkin County inmate who died by suicide went unchecked for 50 minutes; no discipline handed down, sheriff says"},"content":{"rendered":"
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A Woody Creek woman who died by suicide in the Pitkin County Jail last month was in her cell for 50 minutes before jail deputies found her, according to a sheriff\u2019s office report released Friday.<\/p>\n

During that time, a newly trained jail deputy checked on Jillian White, 64, twice and didn\u2019t see her but didn\u2019t investigate further because he thought she might be using the bathroom or taking a shower, the report states.<\/p>\n

However, the breakdown in procedures<\/a> \u2014 which also includes not removing the electrical cord that was left over from a previous inmate\u2019s medical equipment and which White used to hang herself \u2014 has not led to any disciplinary measures at the jail, Pitkin County Sheriff Joe DiSalvo told The Aspen Times on Friday.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not going to call it a mistake,\u201d DiSalvo said. \u201cWe\u2019re dealing with a new deputy who was doing the best he could with the training he had. Just like you would, he feels pretty bad.<\/p>\n

\u201cObviously, we could have done things better.\u201d<\/p>\n

Still, the sheriff said he didn\u2019t think that White would have lived even if she\u2019d have been found during the first scheduled cell check after she hanged herself.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t know if it would have made a difference based on the video (of her death),\u201d DiSalvo said.<\/p>\n

White, who was awaiting a bed at the state psychiatric hospital in Pueblo to be restored to competency, was found dead in her cell<\/a> the evening of Nov. 3. At the time, DiSalvo took responsibility for the electrical cord being left in her cell.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe did something wrong,\u201d the sheriff said Nov. 4. \u201cThis cord shouldn\u2019t have been there. I got no defense.\u201d<\/p>\n

At the time, White\u2019s lawyer sharply criticized Colorado\u2019s treatment of the mentally ill and said state officials in Pueblo had been warned about White\u2019s mental deterioration. White died \u201cdue to the lack of supervision and care, which is required for those suffering from mental illness, care that no jail is equipped to provide,\u201d Jennifer Longtin said at the time.<\/p>\n

Longtin did not return a phone message Friday seeking further comment.<\/p>\n

White had been arrested multiple times for theft, drunken driving and other charges during the past decade.<\/p>\n

In the report on his investigation into White\u2019s death, Pitkin County Sheriff\u2019s Detective Brad Gibson said White not only threatened suicide during several recorded phone conversations prior to Nov. 3, she also can be seen in videos from her cell in the days leading up to Nov. 3 testing out her method of suicide.<\/p>\n

White also appeared to place a yoga mat at the end of her bed, possibly to block the view into her cell, according to the report. Video shows she died in about 90 seconds.<\/p>\n

White made 51 phone calls Nov. 3, the report states. The final one was to her mother, when she told her she was \u201cleaving tonight,\u201d would be \u201cleaving my soul\u201d and that she\u2019d changed her will, the report states.<\/p>\n

At the time of White\u2019s suicide, the newly trained jail deputy was being supervised by a veteran jail supervisor in the facility\u2019s common room because the deputy appeared to be nervous around inmates and needed to spend more time with them the supervisor told Gibson, according to the report.<\/p>\n

The deputy told Gibson he remembered White coming out of her cell for dinner that night just before 5 p.m. He then checked on her at 5:44 p.m. and 6 p.m., and he didn\u2019t see her and didn\u2019t investigate further.<\/p>\n

\u201c(White) had the curtains drawn by the toilet and the shower,\u201d according to Gibson\u2019s report. \u201c(The deputy) said he thought maybe White was showering or on the toilet or on the phone, areas where he could not see her looking through the cell door.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the report, Gibson quoted the deputy as saying: \u201cSo \u2026 I made the decision not to go in at that time. Twenty-twenty hindsight, I wish I had.\u201d<\/p>\n

The deputy said he\u2019d dealt with White that morning and in the past and didn\u2019t pick up on any signs that she was suicidal.<\/p>\n

By the time the third cell check rolled around Nov. 3 about 6:15 p.m., the deputy told the supervisor he had not seen White \u201cin a while,\u201d which prompted the supervisor to immediately check her cell. That was when they found her body, according to the report.<\/p>\n

They attempted to revive her using CPR. They also tried to use a defibrillator, but it wouldn\u2019t provide an electrical shock, the report states.<\/p>\n

The supervisor later said that while it can be difficult to see inside all of the cells from the door because of their varied layouts, a deputy is supposed to locate an inmate if he or she can\u2019t be seen from the door.<\/p>\n

\u201c(The supervisor) told me if he does not see the inmate, he opens the door to check on the person,\u201d according to Gibson\u2019s report. \u201cBut \u2026 you\u2019re supposed to eyeball the person.\u201d<\/p>\n

Video from White\u2019s jail cell showed that 10 minutes after speaking with her mother, she went back into her cell and killed herself, the report states.<\/p>\n

Despite having video of White\u2019s testing of the electrical cord and her suicide, it was not caught by deputies because the jail primarily relies on direct supervision of inmates, said Ron Ryan, Pitkin County undersheriff. The jail\u2019s 40-plus cameras are not monitored all the time and not intended to be, he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cCameras are not a replacement for supervising inmates,\u201d Ryan said.<\/p>\n

Gibson also noticed during his investigation that the camera views are \u201cjumbled\u201d and \u201cdiscombobulated\u201d with \u201ctoo many camera views on too few monitors,\u201d according to his report.<\/p>\n

DiSalvo said he\u2019s been in contact with Longtin since White\u2019s death, though he doesn\u2019t know if White\u2019s family plans to file a lawsuit against the county.<\/p>\n

jauslander@aspentimes.com<\/a><\/p>\n

via:: The Aspen Times<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A Woody Creek woman who died by suicide in the Pitkin County Jail last month was in her cell for 50 minutes before jail deputies found her, according to a sheriff\u2019s office report released Friday. During that time, a newly trained jail deputy checked on Jillian White, 64, twice and didn\u2019t see her but didn\u2019t […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[49],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2452480","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-local-news"],"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-08-19 01:12:44","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSPN The Valley's Quality Rock","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2452480","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2452480"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2452480\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2452480"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2452480"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2452480"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}