Inmate medical care in doubt at Clark County Detention Center

LAS VEGAS (AP) -- Ryan Brevick, a schizophrenic with a history of crippling mood swings and suicide attempts, was turning his life around. The 22-year-old Las Vegan had a girlfriend and, for the first time, his own apartment.

His mother, Las Vegas resident Laurie O'Brien, said she thought things were looking up.

But last month, her son was found dead at the Clark County Detention Center after hanging himself with a bed sheet.

"I called up and told them he was schizophrenic since he was 15 and that he had previous suicide attempts that resulted in hospitalization," O'Brien told the Las Vegas Review-Journal. "I thought he was safe there."

Brevick's death was the fourth suicide since January 2002 at the detention center, and one of seven deaths at the facility during that time, said Paul Martin, chief of the detention center.

There were 20 deaths at the jail during the previous three years, eight of which were suicides. The jail is overseen by the Las Vegas Police Department.

The American Civil Liberties Union of Nevada and a handful of local lawyers say Brevick's death is just the latest fatality at a jail that continues to offer inadequate health and psychiatric care a year after a federal investigation of the facility's medical services was completed.

The ACLU and Las Vegas lawyer Robert Langford have applied to the Clark County District Court for certification to file a class-action lawsuit against the jail. They hope a court ruling will force the jail to correct perceived problems with its psychiatric and medical care.

There are 10 named plaintiffs for the proposed class-action lawsuit. In addition, Langford and the ACLU are handling four other pending lawsuits that allege the jail provided inadequate medical care.

"We have enough cases and strong enough facts that make plain that there is a systematic problem involving the inadequate medical care provided to inmates with serious health problems," said Gary Peck, executive director of the ACLU of Nevada. "It makes sense to pursue these cases as a class-action (lawsuit) because the same thing is happening to a lot of inmates."

The Department of Justice in 1997 launched an investigation into health and safety conditions at the detention center. The Department of Justice found inadequate mental health care and suicide prevention at the jail. It closed the investigation in June 2002 after the jail implemented its recommendations, Martin said.

Clark County Sheriff Bill Young hired an expert to perform a follow-up inspection in February. The expert's report praised jail administrators for making progress, but it also found some problems with information-sharing between mental health and corrections staff; record-keeping and mental health training, according to the report.

Martin said jail officials knew of Brevick's psychiatric condition. They followed protocol by isolating and monitoring Brevick and providing him with the treatment from mental health professionals.

"He was under medical care, but if you have somebody determined to commit suicide it's very hard to prevent it," Martin said. "He did not slip through the cracks. He was being seen by mental health experts, and they thought he would be OK in the jail population. We followed protocol and did everything we could."

Cal Potter, a Las Vegas lawyer hired by Brevick's family to help investigate his death, said the jail's failure to prevent his and other inmate suicides is intolerable.

"We are not confident the problems have been fixed," Potter said. Brevick was incarcerated in connection with a bail dispute that stemmed from an earlier charge of robbery.