The State - News from Jan. 18, 1989

A national expert on jail suicides has been hired to evaluate mental health procedures at Santa Clara County jails, where three inmates died in less than two months, officials said. The deaths began Nov. 27, when Thomas Barth hanged himself with a telephone cord in the new men’s jail in downtown San Jose. Josefino Dirige hanged himself with a sheet Jan. 5 in the old men’s jail. Last Friday, James Sussman died after cutting his throat with a razor blade. “When we start seeing a cluster of suicides like this, it becomes obvious the . . . system’s not working,” said Dana Curtis, an attorney for the inmates. The last previous Santa Clara County jail suicide was in 1987. Thomas Lonergan, a prison expert appointed to monitor Santa Clara County jail conditions for Alameda County Superior Court Judge Henry Ramsey, has chosen Fullerton psychiatrist Bruce Danto, author of definitive studies on jail suicides, to review the three latest suicides and jail procedures.