Summit County Jail Inmate Found DEAD

Summit County authorities are investigating a possible suicide by a female inmate at the county jail.

Deputies found Wanda E. Filing, 53, of Norton, hanging in her cell at 1:25 p.m. Sunday at the facility on East Crosier Street in Akron.

Medical staff and deputies attempted to revive her, sheriff’s inspector and jail commander Bill Holland said. She was taken by Akron firefighters to Cleveland Clinic Akron General, where she was pronounced dead.

Filing had been booked into the jail on Jan. 24 for probation violations. She had a lengthy criminal history that included multiple drug convictions, according to court records.

Deputies are required to check on inmates three times an hour and more often if they are on suicide watch. Holland said that Filing was not on suicide watch.

She was alone in her cell at the time.

He declined to comment further on the investigation.

The Summit County Medical Examiner’s Office has scheduled an autopsy for Tuesday.

Filing’s death comes at the same time that Summit County leaders are looking for ways to improve operations at the jail.

County Council created the Summit County Jail Operation Advisory Commission last fall to review jail procedures and personnel following the Sept. 2 death of 36-year-old inmate Anthony Jones. He died of cardiac arrest after a fight with two sheriff’s deputies.

The commission is set to meet from noon to 1 p.m. Thursday in council chambers at the Ohio Building, 175 S. Main St.

Holland said he couldn’t recall the last suicide at the jail.

Inmate Wayne K. Jordan, 63, of Green committed suicide in the facility in February 2016, according to Beacon Journal/Ohio.com records.

Jordan’s wife has filed a federal wrongful death lawsuit against the county arguing that staff should have recognized that he was a suicide risk. That suit is ongoing.

Full story: https://www.ohio.com/akron/news/local/summit-county-authorities-investigating-possible-suicide-at-county-jail