By Dan Hinkel
Chicago Tribune
CHICAGO — One day in April, officers at the Lake County Jail discovered something disturbing in inmate Igor Karlukov’s possession: shreds of a mesh laundry bag fashioned into a noose, jail records show.
Karlukov, 35, was jailed after allegedly attacking his ex-girlfriend and telling police he believed she had magical powers. A jail intake form suggested he had mental health problems. He had been on suicide watch before the noose was found, and he was on suicide watch after, meaning a guard was to look into his cell at least every 15 minutes, according to jail officials and records.
Nonetheless, four days after the noose was discovered, Karlukov hanged himself in his cell with a noose made of fabric from a mesh laundry bag that he tied to a grate.
Lake County sheriff’s officials said they lack the resources to provide constant observation or a suicide-resistant cell to every troubled inmate. Karlukov denied wanting to die, and a mental health professional thought he posed little suicide risk, officials said. The first noose was taken away, and it’s unclear where he got the fabric for the second, according to sheriff’s officials.
But some jail suicide experts said Karlukov shouldn’t have had any way to get material for a makeshift rope and shouldn’t have been in a cell where he could anchor a noose, given that he’d already fashioned one hangman’s knot. Without other precautions, periodically peeking into an inmate’s cell isn’t likely to prevent suicide, experts said.
“It makes no sense to increase the level of observation without putting them into a safe environment,” said Lindsay Hayes, an expert on jail and prison suicide who led a recent federal study on the problem.
Karlukov is one of several Lake County Jail inmates who have died in recent years. An inmate died in March 2012, a few months after correctional officers broke his neck in a scuffle and dragged him to a cell where he lay for about 15 hours. Three officers were eventually fired. A female inmate died in 2012 after a 15-day hunger strike, and a pending lawsuit from her family accuses sheriff’s officials of failing to appropriately care for her.
Undersheriff Ray Rose, who has overseen the jail during policy and personnel changes, pointed out that the facility earned high marks in the most recent state inspection. He said the jail has improved under Sheriff Mark Curran, who has held the office since 2006 and is seeking re-election in November.
The jail’s daily population tops 600 inmates, and Rose noted that jailers recorded 385 suicide threats and four attempts — including Karlukov’s — in the first seven months of 2014. The state has drastically reduced its commitment to caring for the mentally ill, and Rose echoed other law enforcement officials as he complained that jails are now “hiding places” for the mentally ill.
Experts weren’t unanimous in saying that Karlukov’s death represented a serious failure. Thomas White, a Kansas jail suicide expert, noted that Karlukov saw mental health professionals. White said higher levels of supervision are usually reserved for inmates believed to be imminently suicidal.
Nationwide, jail suicide numbers have dropped significantly. In 2006, the suicide rate in detention facilities was 36 deaths per 100,000 inmates, down from 107 deaths per 100,000 reported 20 years earlier, according to the federal study led by Hayes. It’s possible that deaths dipped as awareness grew or litigation spurred changes, the study suggested.
But jails and prisons nationwide need to continue improving, and not only because deaths can spawn costly lawsuits, Hayes said.
“If your own loved one was in custody … you would want them to be safe,” he said. “Period.”
Malicious spirit
Karlukov, a Ukrainian national, came to the U.S. about six years ago and was living in Palatine and working as a truck driver, according to a police report.
In January, a Lake County judge granted his ex-girlfriend an order of protection after she complained that he made threats and called her dozens of times. He was arrested on telephone harassment charges that month but remained free while the case was pending, records show.
Karlukov believed the woman was a shaman or god whose body was inhabited by a malicious soul that was stealing his soul and turning him into a “bio-robot,” he explained to police, and he concluded that saving his soul was more important than observing the protective order. In February he ordered her a sandwich and waited for her to answer the deliveryman’s knock, records show. He’d brought flowers to give her once he’d driven out the bad soul, he told police.
When she opened the door, Karlukov rushed in and beat her, choked her and threatened to throw her from the balcony, police wrote. Her roommate intervened and Karlukov fled, records show, and he was quickly arrested and charged with stalking and aggravated battery, among other charges, according to court records. He also faced potential deportation, records show.
Sheriff’s officials declined to detail any diagnosis Karlukov might have received, though they said he received mental health care.
He was housed in a pod for inmates who might be considered troubled or vulnerable, jail officials said.
Behavior in jail
Karlukov’s behavior in jail repeatedly drew concern from correctional officers.
In March, an officer saw him fall and cut his neck on his cell door’s locking mechanism and he was put on suicide watch, according to reports and jail officials.
On April 14 a guard found the noose, but Karlukov claimed he was bored and not suicidal, jail records show. Guards took the bag and he continued on suicide watch, said David Wathen, chief of the jail.
Cells are searched once a day, Wathen said, but inmates pass items to one another. Karlukov wasn’t issued another bag, but if a guard had seen him with one, it might not have raised any alarms, Wathen said.
Around 2:50 a.m. April 18, a corrections officer saw Karlukov standing near the desk in his cell and then, about 10 minutes later, he still appeared to be standing near his desk, the officer wrote. She finished her round and decided to check on him again. She shook the door and called his name but got no response, she wrote. She called another officer and they entered the cell together.
“Oh my God,” she said. Her colleague added, “Oh (expletive).”
The officers found Karlukov hanging by fabric from a mesh laundry bag, and he’d used copper wire, apparently from a radio, to thread the makeshift rope through a grate designed to thwart suicide attempts, according to Rose and jail records.
He was pronounced dead at a nearby hospital.
Preventing death
A suicide watch means little if an inmate can get materials to make a noose in a cell where he or she can tie it off, said Richard Lichten, a California-based jail practices expert.
“Suicide watch means all the stuff should be taken away from him,” he said. “To give them the tools that they can use to further the suicide, it makes no sense at all.”
The Lake County Jail has a medical unit where inmates receive closer supervision as well as one suicide-resistant cell where officers can house a person believed to be in serious danger, jail officials said. But mental health staff decide the level of an inmate’s supervision, and the mental health professional who saw Karlukov the day before he died determined he could be taken off suicide watch soon, Rose said.
Hayes acknowledged the challenges presented by an unending stream of troubled inmates. However, he said, the death of an inmate on suicide watch represents a failure by jail staff.
“When you put someone on suicide precautions, they shouldn’t be able to kill themselves,” he said.