Fifty-one-year-old Michael Smith of Manhattan died in the Riley County Jail Sept. 2. According to the Riley County Police Department, corrections officers found Smith unresponsive in his cell around 4:29 p.m. After Riley County EMS responded to the scene and administered CPR, the inmate was pronounced dead.

Smith’s cause of death is unknown, as an autopsy report has not been completed, Communications Director for the Kansas Bureau of Investigation, Melissa Underwood, said. 

“Typically what happens during an autopsy is the coroner, in many cases, wants to wait on additional tests in order to determine the cause and manner of death, and so many times they won’t rule on it at the time of autopsy,” Underwood said.

The KBI is called in for cases involving the “death of prisoner in custody of city or county,” according to the Kansas Office of Revisor of Statutes 19-1935.

Jail Captain Mark French said jail staff has surveillance measures in place to ensure medical emergencies or deceased inmates are promptly handled.

“We have three different shifts,” French said. “They do counts at the start and end of each shift, so that’s roughly six times a day that inmates are checked on. They’re also fed three meals a day, so there’s personal interaction with every mealtime. It’s not until they go into a heightened watch, like people that have made threats of harming themselves or something, where we would actually go to a more often review of them.”

Smith was housed in a heightened watch area at the time of his death.

Smith was not the first inmate to die in the jail. Laura Pearce, 38, died of suicide April 15, 2023 and Joseph Varvel, 25, died of a toxic effect of drugs on April 28, 2023. These incidents both occurred before French began his position as captain.

French said none of the deaths the jail has seen were related to poor conditions.

“I’m born and raised in Manhattan and I truly believe that we represent the community standards in the jail,” French said. “I would be proud to have anybody come down and walk through. They might not agree with everything we do, but nobody will second-guess that we’re treating people appropriately.”

Joshua Spencer, lieutenant at the jail, said since being pinned as captain, French brought positive change to inmate life.

“Before Captain French took over, well, up until not too long ago … we didn’t have an outdoor space, so the only time they [inmates] even got fresh air was when they went to court,” Spencer said. “… We have an outdoor area now, which is a huge morale booster for the inmates.”

French said inmate mental health is a priority for him to prevent suicides in jail. 

“We have a lot of people that are suffering from mental health issues,” French said. “A lot of times they just need to be heard. So, instead of just walking by, you know, give them one minute to vent, to de-escalate, to reduce their anxiety before it builds up to where they fight with somebody or cause issues.”

Spencer said the jail provides the inmates with activities to ease their minds productively.

“We have projects like painting and everything,” Spencer said. “We pick inmates that don’t get the chance to roam so they can get out. Every time I walk down there, they’re like, ‘Hey Spencer, can I get on the painting crew?’ [It] keeps their mind busy, gives them something to do. They feel like they can accomplish something. So, any little thing that we can do, we try to do, to give people a chance to forget about being in here for a little bit.” 

French said he aims for the jail to offer mental health services to inmates in the near future.

“We’re working with the county to develop a contract for mental health services,” French said. “Right now we rely on our co-responder and she meets with inmates probably three to four times a week based on their needs, and they can put in a request to meet with the therapist and stuff like that.”

The jail does not charge inmates for mental health medication.

“That’s something we changed a year ago because we found that inmates were refusing to take medication because it cost them five dollars, and that’s all we were charging, but even five dollars means they might not be able to buy commissary and stuff like that,” French said.

Officers also take precautions to ensure inmates’ physical health is in good shape, specifically when an inmate arrives with pre-existing health conditions, French said. 

“We have a nurse on-site,” French said. “… Within 14 days of them [inmates] being in they do a health evaluation, and a lot of times we’ll get a release so we can track down their medical records to determine if there’s any treatment they should be on.”

French said it is common for the jail to receive inmates who are actively detoxing off of addictive drugs. 

“We have a complete medical procedure that’s followed in regards to that,” French said. “… A lot of times they’ll stay up front … where they can be monitored more often. … If we need to, we’ll put them on medication that will help them, or if it’s the worst case scenario, we’ll move them up front to where we have more eyes on. But, I mean, detoxing is difficult but it occurs here on a very regular basis.”

French said though the jail prides itself on inmate morale and living conditions, there are still improvements to be made. 

“We’ve come a long way in a year, but we know we have a long way to go too,” French said. “When we got here, our staffing, we were almost 15 corrections officers short. Right now we’re two [short], and we were fully staffed. We’re not short because people don’t want to work here, it’s just life.”

Spencer said the bottom line and main objective of jail staff is to treat each inmate with respect.

“Just because they’re in jail — this is the one thing I tell staff — doesn’t mean they’re bad people,” Spencer said. “… It doesn’t matter what they’re in here for, whether it’s a DUI or whether it’s murder. We give everyone the same respect. … I go down there, lots of other supervisors walk through, talk to them, joke around, play cards with them to show them that we don’t look at them as just a number. They’re people and it doesn’t mean they’re bad because they’re in there.”