Inmate Found Hanged in County Jail Cell

A 51-year-old Santa Paula man who days ago learned he would have to serve just two years of a 16-year sentence in state prison on drug and conspiracy charges, hanged himself Friday morning in his cell at the County Jail, authorities said.

Juan Arenas was found unconscious by Ventura County sheriff’s deputies at 6 a.m., said jail Cmdr. Joe Harwell. Harwell said Arenas, who was alone in his cell, killed himself by fashioning a noose from a bedsheet and then looping the sheet around the top rail of his bunk bed.

The Ventura County medical examiner ruled Arenas’ death a suicide. The cause of death was asphyxia by hanging, said Deputy Coroner Craig Stevens.

Authorities said they do not suspect foul play.

Arenas was transferred from the state prison system to the County Jail in August. Harwell said Arenas had served a year in state prison on charges of selling a controlled substance and conspiracy and was in local custody awaiting a hearing to determine if his sentence would be reduced.

At the hearing this week, his prison time was reduced from 16 years to two years. Arenas, who was in a cell by himself in the jail’s general population area, showed no signs of self-destructive behavior while in local custody and was not on suicide watch, Harwell said.

“There was nothing to indicate to us that he had a problem,” Harwell said.

Deputies at the jail make random cell checks during the night and Arenas’ cell was checked at 5:20 a.m. Friday, Harwell said. “Everything was normal at that point,” he said.

At 6 a.m., when the cells were opened to allow the inmates to go to breakfast, deputies were told by inmates that Arenas had not come out of his cell. “The deputies administered CPR and the paramedics were called. Mr. Arenas was taken to Ventura County Medical Center and was pronounced dead at 6:50 a.m.,” Harwell said.

Authorities interviewed inmates whose cells were close to Arenas’, but none were able to offer any useful information. “It appears that [Arenas] had not professed that he had self-destructive intent to the other inmates,” Harwell said.

Since 1988 there have been four suicides at the County Jail--two this year, including Arenas. In April, a male inmate hanged himself after tying a sheet to a fire sprinkler head, Harwell said.

Following that incident, sprinkler heads throughout the jail were changed to be flush with the ceiling to prevent anything being attached to them, according to Harwell.

The 520 inmates at the County Jail are prone to losing hope because, for many, this is their final stop before long terms in state prison, Harwell said. “If an inmate’s going to be despondent, this is where it’s going to come out.”

Inmates have access to psychiatric help if they request it. Some inmates receive help after jail staff notice them acting in a self-destructive way, Harwell said. “In any given week we probably intervene in 15 or 20 cases where people express despondency or express some self-destructive behavior,” he said.

Arenas, had he been in need of help, could have requested it, Harwell said. But he made no such request. Instead, he killed himself using a sheet and a bed rail 4 1/2 feet off the ground, Harwell said.

State law requires inmates not under psychiatric watch to receive bedsheets, Harwell said.

“When a person doesn’t bring their despondency to our attention, it is very hard to stop them,” Harwell said. “If a person really wants to [commit suicide], it’s really hard to preclude him from doing it.”