Staff Reports
An Alachua County jail inmate remains in critical condition following an attempted suicide Sunday morning.
According to an Alachua County Sheriff’s Office (ACSO) social media post, an Alachua County Jail detention officer found inmate Kellum West around 1:30 a.m. hanging from a bed sheet that he tied into a noose and attached to a ceiling vent.
The officer requested assistance and entered West’s cell and removed the inmate from his hanging position and laid him on the floor. Jail staff performed CPR until Alachua County Fire Rescue paramedics arrived and transported West to a local hospital.
West remained in critical condition as of Monday, according to ACSO spokesperson Art Forgey.
ACSO deputies secured West’s jail cell and awaited the arrival of detectives and investigators from the Criminal Investigations Division and the Office of Professional Standards. The initial investigation revealed several writings that were allegedly authored by West that related to his desire to take his life. West was the lone occupant in the cell and was housed in a mental health pod.
The investigation remains ongoing and ACSO is working with West’s family and the hospital social workers.
How can a young man in a mental “pod” as they call it, commit suicide? why sheet in room??????? A
This was my friend. His family and mine have been close since I was 6. Why were bed sheets allowed in mental health ward?! That’s neglect in my eyes.
There isn’t really any mental health care there. Suicidal inmates are either stripped naked of their clothes and watched through a small window or put in a cell by themselves in a giant suit. I would be twice as traumatized after that
Sounds like negligance to me!
Terrible headline – doesn’t show the most important part of the story. This is negligence, at best.