The alleged suicide attempt by a Rhea County Jail inmate March 1 was designed to get attention, not take the prisoner's life, according to Sheriff Mike Neal.

Randy Suttles, 20, of College Street in Dayton, has been jailed numerous times in the past couple of years, according to jail records. He's currently in jail for violation of probation in Rhea County General Sessions Court and is also being held for Rhea County Circuit Court until he pays off $1,247 in fines and court costs. In addition, he faces charges of three counts of theft of property worth less than $500 and resisting arrest in General Sessions Court.

General Sessions Judge Jim McKenzie has ordered Suttles held until July 19, 2006, on the violation of probation charge, according Lt. Melba Huffman, who supervises the jail.

On March 1, Suttles was locked in Cell 10 in Cellblock C, along with five other men. At about 4:15 p.m., Corrections Officer Shirley Varner was dispensing medications to Cell 9 when she saw Suttles in the next cell with a red bed sheet knotted around his neck and looped around the top bars of the cell, according to jail records.

"As I pushed the med cart to Cell 10, inmate Suttles appeared to relax with feet coming off the floor," Varner reported. "Inmate Suttles' neck was not red from sheet around his neck."

Varner called for her shift supervisor Sgt. Leroy Ledbetter who lowered Suttles to the floor. Varner then called for Neal, Huffman and Chief Deputy John Argo.

The officers could not find any injuries on Suttles, but they called for an ambulance because he appeared to be unconscious.

Emergency Department physicians at Rhea Medical Center apparently couldn't find any injuries either, so Suttles was transported back to the jail.

Suttles was also taken to Moccasin Bend Mental Health Institute in Chattanooga for a psychological evaluation, and was ultimately returned to jail.

Five other inmates in the cell with Suttles claimed to have been asleep at the time of the incident.

Sheriff Neal said he believes Suttles was just looking for attention and was upset because his work-release status was revoked for violation of the jail's work-release policy.

"If he had really wanted to hang himself, he wouldn't have tied the sheet so loose that he could stand on the floor, and then he wouldn't have waited until the jailer got to his cell to do it," Neal said.

The jail takes all the precautions required by state regulations and is constantly improving its procedures and equipment, Neal said.

There are currently 13 security cameras operating in the jail, one of which looks down the hall in front of Suttles' cell. Technicians are in the process of adding three additional cameras and upgrading all the security cameras from black and white to color. The images from all the cameras are recorded and can be retrieved several days later in addition to all being displayed on a large monitor in the jail office.

"The Tennessee Corrections Institute, which establishes jail regulations in Tennessee, doesn't allow us to point cameras into individual cells or shower areas because of privacy issues," Huffman said. "We can only look into public areas like the halls and kitchen."

Corrections officers check on each cell every 30 minutes, and in between cell checks officers dispense medications, deliver and pick up food trays and otherwise communicate with inmates, Huffman said.

Suttles is currently in lockdown but could eventually become eligible for work release again.

He lost his work-release status in February for violating work-release regulations at least twice, according to Huffman. Suttles reportedly signed out of the jail at 5:05 a.m. on Feb. 12, never went to work and was later found at his wife or girlfriend's home in Dayton. On Feb. 16 Suttles signed out for work at 5 a.m. to go to work in Soddy Daisy and worked for three and half hours then left after attempting to get his supervisor to cover for him. He didn't return to the jail for more than two hours, according to Deputy Jeff Beskin's report.

Huffman said Suttles has not been any trouble since the March 1 incident.

John Carpenter can be reached at jcarpenter@xtn.net.