ST. CHARLES TOWNSHIP – The apparent suicide of a man in custody at the Kane County jail Tuesday remains under investigation, according to officials with the Kane County Sheriff’s Office.
Paul Wright, editor of “Prison Legal News,” a project of the Human Rights Defense Center based in Lake Worth, Florida, said evaluating the mental health during the jail intake process is critical. He said jail suicides are “100 percent preventable.”
“Are they asking prisoners if they have suicidal ideation?” Wright said. “It’s a misconception that suicide is inevitable. Of all the things that happen in prisons and jails, the ones that are 100 percent preventable are homicides and suicides.”
Wright said the fact that Dutkiewicz was able to be away from staff long enough to hang himself is “a big old red flag.”
“He died by asphyxiation – not a gun, which takes 15 seconds, and it’s over. It takes time to fashion a noose and find an anchor point and wait,” Wright said. “No one can argue that what was done was adequate. Mental health security measures were not adequate because you have a dead body in the mix.”
Kane County Sheriff’s Office spokesman Lt. Pat Gengler said the office would not comment on Wright’s assertions. Kane County Sheriff Donald Kramer said the probe into Dutkiewicz’s death was turned over to Lt. Brian McCarty, who is in charge of investigations.
“I do not know how long it will take. We do not want to rush anything,” Kramer said. “When something like this happens, you have to turn it over to an independent body. I have experts, and I let them do the expert work. And they will bring the full investigation to me when it’s completed.”