A D.C. Jail prisoner killed herself over the weekend, the second suicide at the jail in less than four months.
D.C. Jail officials were tight-lipped about the incident, except to say that Alicia Edwards killed herself in the eight minutes between the time jail guards last saw her alive and then found her body Saturday afternoon.
Jail spokeswoman Beverly Young declined to say how Edwards killed herself.
Edwards, 32, was put in a cell in the jail’s mental health unit, where a doctor or nurse was supposed to monitor her for 24 hours, Young said. Edwards had a history that required the intense monitoring, Young said, but she would not disclose further details.
Young said that Edwards was jailed after she absconded from a halfway house, but Young would not say why police arrested Edwards in the first place.
It was the second suicide at the jail since December, when a 28-year-old man hanged himself while he awaited a hearing on a minor traffic charge.
Jail officers’ union president Nila Ritenour said the corrections officers assigned to patrol Edwards’ unit did their job properly. The officers are stretched thin because 25 of their members have been placed on administrative leave by Jail Director Devon Brown, Ritenour said.
That includes the 11 officers who were fired in the wake of a daring jail break last summer. An administrative judge reinstated the 11 earlier this year, but Brown immediately placed them back on leave when they went to collect their badges, Ritenour said.
“It’s just an unfortunate situation,” Ritenour said. “We have a lot people who have mental problems and we don’t know they have problems until something happens.”
Young said Brown ignored the administrator’s ruling to reinstate the 11 officers because it was “just a recommendation.”
Anyone with information on the D.C. Jail can call Bill Myers at 202-459-4956 or e-mail [email protected].
