SOUTH SALT LAKE — The Salt Lake County Jail is changing some of its policies and re-evaluating all of them following the starvation death of an inmate earlier this year.
After a four-month stint in the jail, Carlos Umana, 20, died at a weight below 80 pounds. He weighed more than double that when he was first booked.
"We're definitely taking this situation very seriously," said Salt Lake County Sheriff Jim Winder. "We are evaluating all of our processes and have made some short-term alterations to ensure that it doesn't happen."
Winder said the jail was aware of Umana's mental health issues, and at the time of his death, workers were evaluating how to address the fact that he was not eating. Winder could not further disclose terms of Umana's condition.
Umana died on Feb. 27. He was in jail on a first-degree felony attempted murder charge after he allegedly stabbed his mother's boyfriend in October 2010.
Winder called the death "unexpected" and said Umana had interacted with guards just 15 to 20 minutes prior to his passing. He said if the jail felt there was an imminent risk of death, officials would have intervened sooner.
"He was being monitored; he was being assessed," Winder said. "Could those assessments have been expedited? Those are all questions we're dealing with, but by golly we don't let people just lay in on gurneys and die in here."
Winder acknowledged Wednesday the jail could do a better job.
"It is highly problematic to have an individual starve to death inside a correctional facility, and if I have my way, it'll never happen again," he said.
The sheriff said a more recent case has surfaced with another inmate not eating. He said the jail is evaluating the man's nutritional needs. The jail security, medical and mental health staffs all look at these situations.
Winder said inmates do have the right to not eat and intervention becomes a difficult "philosophical, legal and moral" decision.
"It's a tragedy — there's no other way to say this," Winder said. "To have an individual come into a correctional facility and go out at 78 pounds is a tragedy. Period."
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