The Associated Press

COLUMBUS - Three Ohio prison inmates killed themselves in a seven-day period, putting the prison system on pace for a record number this year and prompting a review of suicide prevention policies statewide.

"We want to see if there are any commonalities between the incidents," prison system spokeswoman Andrea Dean said. She said officials believe, after an initial review, that there was no common thread in the inmate deaths.

Dean said Reginald A. Wilkinson, head of the state prison system, wants to look at all six suicides this year, including three since June 18.

Mental health input

Wilkinson talked Friday with Kay Northrup, deputy director for correctional health care, and Debbie Hughes, chief of mental health services. Dean said the department has a suicide policy developed in consultation with mental health experts.

Inmates placed in suicide watch cells are checked every 15 minutes. Those in the infirmary are monitored at 30-minute intervals.

The most inmate suicides on record were 10 each in 1999, 1997 and 1995. Three inmates took their lives last year.

Recent suicides

The latest suicide was Jacob Beatty, 18, of Lancaster, who was found hanging in his cell at 7:45 p.m. Thursday at the Correctional Reception Center in Orient.

Beatty had arrived the day before from Fairfield County. A first-time offender, he was to serve a four-year sentence for aggravated robbery and harassment of another inmate.

Thomas L. Brewer, 23, of Clermont County, died June 20 at the Ross Correctional Institutional at Chillicothe. Brewer entered prison June 8, 2000, on an attempted rape charge. He was to be released May 23, 2008.

Brewer had been on suicide watch, but was sent to an isolation cell where he hanged himself.

Albert Baker, 46, went to the Lorain Correctional Institution on May 24, and committed suicide June 18. The prison is a regional reception center for northern Ohio.

Baker, from Wayne County, was serving a one-year sentence for assault and was to be released April 26, 2005.

'Mismanagement' blamed

A guard at the Ross Correctional Institutional questioned policies she claims contributed to Brewer's suicide.

Teresa DePouw said in a letter to The Columbus Dispatch that Brewer's death "can be attributed to administration mismanagement and inept personnel."

She said Warden Pat Hurley and other prison officials were indifferent to rapes and other assaults, contributing to a dangerous atmosphere and, ultimately, to Brewer's death.

Dean denied the accusations.

"It appears all the appropriate steps were taken," she said. "At no time does the department feel that Warden Hurley and his staff were indifferent to assaults."