Somerset County Jail reports inmate suicide Skowhegan man, 20, victim of latest incident

SKOWHEGAN – State police detectives were investigating the apparent suicide of an inmate at the Somerset County Jail, authorities said Sunday.

Joseph Hayes, 20, of Skowhegan was found hanging from a bedsheet Saturday afternoon in a cellblock where he was the only prisoner, said Stephen McCausland, spokesman for the Maine Department of Public Safety.

State police detectives were investigating, as the agency is required to do in all inmate deaths, McCausland said.

Hayes, who had been held since July 16 on probation violation, was found hanging at 3:43 p.m., McCausland said. Corrections officers had last checked on him at 2:30 p.m., the spokesman said.

There has been a string of inmate suicides this year.

Suicides were reported at the Maine State Prison and in the Kennebec County Jail. There were two in a five-week period at the Waldo County Jail.