From the Los Angeles Times
THE STATE
Jailers are asked how killer was able to strike again
Deaths of cellmates raise questions about the communications between state, county.
By Stuart Pfeifer
Times Staff Writer
June 28, 2007
Kurt Karcher strangled his cellmate in state prison last year, officials say. Then he was moved to a downtown Los Angeles jail, where he allegedly killed another one.
The combination of events has raised questions about how well state and county officials communicate as they regularly trade custody of dangerous inmates, this one already convicted of choking to death an Orange County man in 1993.
Los Angeles County sheriff's officials are investigating why Karcher, once affiliated with a white prison gang, was put in the same cell as a Latino gang member instead of being kept in isolation. They also want to know if Karcher was receiving the psychiatric medication that state prison doctors had prescribed to control his actions. He has bipolar disorder, records show.
"If the guy was a onetime murderer and was being accused of a second murder of an inmate, the question I'd be asking is, 'What was my classification unit thinking when they put him in a cell with another inmate?' " said Bruce Bikle, a former prison administrator who teaches criminal justice at Cal State Sacramento. ...
_www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-inmate28jun28,0,4611826,full.story?coll=la-h ome-center_ (http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-inmate28jun28,0,4611826,full.story?coll=la-home-center)
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June 23, 2007
Jailer error suspected as factor in inmate's suicide
Mentally ill man was put in wrong cell, sheriff says
By Leah Rupp
leah.rupp@clarionledger.com
Jailer error might be partly to blame for a mentally ill man's suicide at the Hinds County Detention Center earlier this month, Sheriff Malcolm McMillin said.
Jeffery Jerome Leggett, 18, was put in a housing unit with a cellmate on June 13, the same day he was ordered to be committed to the State Hospital at Whitfield for treatment.
One day later, he was found hanging from a smoke detector by shredded sheets tied together.
McMillin said Leggett should have been in a single cell in the high-traffic booking area, where he could have been constantly watched.
"Now we have to decide if there was a failure to follow policy, ... then figure out if that had an impact on the suicide itself," McMillin said.
Joann Percy, Leggett's grandmother, did not return calls for comment Friday.
However, court papers reveal the Jackson man had a history of mental illness. He had been treated at five facilities and had a "risk of violence and suicide," according to the documents. Percy had filed commitment papers after Leggett threatened her life, the records show. ...
_www.clarionledger.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070623/NEWS/706230352/1001 _
(http://www.clarionledger.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070623/NEWS/706230352/1001)
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City jail fails to notify family of inmate death Boyfriend learns days later when he tried to bail her out
Thursday, Jun 21, 2007 - 12:09 AM
By DAVID RESS AND JIM NOLAN TIMES-DISPATCH STAFF WRITERS S
he collapsed after screaming for a half hour in a jail isolation cell. She died eight minutes after arriving at the emergency room.
But it was days before Pamela L. Bayne's boyfriend and family learned of her death in Richmond City Jail.
From a bail bondsman.
"This just ain't right," said Bayne's boyfriend, John Tusso, speaking from Bennett Funeral Home on Cutshaw Avenue where he was finalizing arrangements for Bayne's services tomorrow.
"They threw it under the carpet."
Bayne, 36, died June 2 during what would have been the sixth day of her first stay in the city jail. She was arrested May 27 in connection with the assault of an emergency medical technician, and after a night in lockup went to jail May 28.
An internal investigation found no signs of foul play or attempted suicide, Richmond Sheriff's Office spokeswoman Tara Dunlop said yesterday. She said Bayne was not receiving medication for any physical illness while at the jail.
Tusso, who had been living with Bayne for 18 months, said she had spent 10 days in Retreat Hospital from May 4 to May 14. ...
_www.inrich.com/cva/ric/news.apx.-content-articles-RTD-2007-06-21-0211.html_ (http://www.inrich.com/cva/ric/news.apx.-content-articles-RTD-2007-06-21-0211.h tml)