DOVER-FOXCROFT – A Piscataquis County Jail supervisor thwarted a suicide attempt Wednesday when an inmate tried to hang himself with a bedsheet.

Because no beds were available Wednesday in any of the state’s secure mental health facilities, the inmate is being held on suicide watch at the Piscataquis County Jail, according to Piscataquis County Jail Administrator Dave Harmon.

He said the 30-year-old man would be transferred to such a facility when a bed becomes available.

In the interim, he is being provided with counseling, the administrator said.

The attempt was the second one at a county jail in the past two days.

Harmon said that John Sears, shift supervisor, was making his rounds at 9:30 a.m. when he spotted the man with a bedsheet tied around his neck and the other end over a door. Sears quickly unlocked the jail door, held the inmate up and shouted for help, he said.

The inmate was taken by ambulance to Mayo Regional Hospital in Dover-Foxcroft, where he was checked and later released.

“I was just doing my job,” Sears, a 36-year veteran of law enforcement and corrections, said Wednesday.

Sears said the man did not have time to push his feet off the floor before he was spotted. The jail supervisor said he unlocked the door, grabbed the man and held him up as he hollered for help.

Corrections officer Charlie Bailey came to his aid, and the pair removed the noose from the inmate’s neck. The man was not physically harmed, according to Sears.

Harmon said the man was being held for burglary and theft, as well as on outstanding warrants.

Jail officials at Somerset County Jail in Skowhegan thwarted a similar attempt on Tuesday.

An inmate tried to hang himself but was interrupted during a random cell check.

The inmate was taken to Redington-Fairview General Hospital for treatment, according to jail officials.