Inmate rights group calls for changes

BUFFALO, N.Y. (WIVB) - Another suicide at the Erie County Holding Center has inmates rights groups calling for major changes at the lock up.

Daniel Nye, 26, was the father of two young boys and an Air Force veteran, who was found hanging in his cell in the Erie County Holding Center on Saturday. A Buffalo News report quotes a jail staffer who said shoelaces were tied to a bar on his cell window. Calls are intensifying for changes in the system.

"Maybe there should be more cameras. Maybe there should be more employees, or maybe there should be better trained employees to make sure that incidents like this don't happen," said Karima Amin, of Prisoners are People Too.

Tuesday morning, a spokesman for Erie County Executive Chris Collins said, "It is the state that sets the policy for how local jails are to be run. We follow what New York State says we have to do and should do to reduce suicides."

There have been nine suicides by hanging at the Holding Center since 2003, according to the U.S. Justice Department, which, along with the State is suing Erie County over jail conditions.

Daniel Nye's housemate, Adam Kleinhammer, who has also been in the Holding Center, told me what he once witnessed.

Daniel Nye's housemate Adam Kleinhammer said, "There was a guy in cell two doors down from me complaining he was sick for three days. Three days later they found him sick in his cell, dead from natural causes, I don't know. But he was complaining he was sick and needed to see a doctor. Nothing happened. Guy wound up dead."

Erie County is not allowing investigators into the Holding Center and is fighting the lawsuits.

Due to a growing concern about the health and safety conditions at the Holding Center, the U.S. Justice Department has already asked the courts to move quickly, to allow investigators into the jail. There are federal and state lawsuits filed over jail conditions. Erie County is fighting those lawsuits.

We expect to hear from County Attorney Cheryl Green later Tuesday.