MACHIAS – The inmate who tried to hang himself last weekend at the Washington County Jail is recovering at Eastern Maine Medical Center in Bangor, according to Jail Administrator Robert Gross.

Gross said Thursday that he had spoken with the physician who is treating Larry Alexander. The doctor said Alexander was walking and talking and appeared to be recovering well, he said.

Corrections officers found the 28-year-old Cherryfield man hanging in a holding cell in the intake area of the jail at approximately 8 a.m. Sunday.

An incoming prisoner who was using the jail telephone alerted staff after he looked into the cell and saw Alexander hanging by a bedsheet from a fixture that holds a surveillance camera.

Corrections officers administered CPR at the scene, and Alexander was taken by ambulance to Down East Community Hospital in Machias and transferred to EMMC.

Alexander had appeared Friday in 4th District Court on a charge of assault. He was being held on $500 bail and was in a holding cell in the intake area because the jail was overcrowded.

Gross said Alexander had been seen Saturday by crisis counselors at his own request, but jail staff had no indication that he might be suicidal.

The Washington County Sheriff’s Department is investigating the incident.