The recent suicide of Penn State student Timothy Kulp while in custody at Centre County Prison, Bellefonte has left many asking how something like this happened and why it was not prevented.

"Mr. Kulp said he wasn't planning on harming himself," Centre County Prison warden David Immel said.

For this reason, the prison did not put Kulp on a suicide watch Monday night, and instead kept him in an isolation cell where they could supervise him, Immel said.

Although the prison does have "precautionary steps and procedures" for those who prisoners officials think are suicidal, they did not see any reason to put a suicide "plan" into effect, Immel said.

"The signs weren't there to take any suicidal precautions," he said.

A corrections officer found the 18-year-old freshman hanging from a shoelace attached to a metal bar on the window at the back of his cell shortly after 11 p.m. Monday. He was pronounced dead shortly after midnight.

Kulp was arrested Saturday for allegedly indecently assaulting three women as they slept in their Mifflin Hall rooms. His father said Kulp had been fighting depression and alcohol problems.

In the wake of the suicide, prison officials are debating whether or not they should have known to place Kulp under surveillance.

"We are second-guessing ourselves as to whether or not there was anything we could have done," Immel said.

During the weekend, Kulp spoke to a counselor from the Meadows Psychiatric Center in Centre Hall and then spoke to a prison counselor on Monday. Neither counselor saw any reason for Kulp to be put under a suicide watch, Immel said.

Although Kulp did have a history of depression, which is a warning sign that is taken into consideration when evaluating a person, the prison was unaware of this background because they did not talk to Kulp's family.

"We didn't talk with his parents, but we don't routinely call parents," Immel said.

There are standard questions that counselors ask people to determine whether or not they are possibly suicidal, said Carol Waltz, administrator and crisis assessor for Mental Health/Mental Retardation.

"We do an assessment to determine the immediacy of danger," she said.

Waltz said that every assessment is evaluated on a case-by-case basis and that there are no actual words that determine whether or not someone is suicidal, but a combination of things.

She said warning signs include if the person has a plan of suicide, has the means to do it, has a chance of following through with the suicide, has a past history of suicide attempts or has a mental health history.

"There are certain things you look for," Waltz said.

If someone is in a controlled environment then it is easier to prevent a suicide from happening because there are many people to look out for him, she said.

"It's a common fallacy to think that if one really wants to commit suicide then they don't say anything about it — that's not true," Waltz said.

Not only do counselors take into consideration what a person says, but also their body language and appearance.

"You look at non-verbal cues when you're talking to them," Mary Anne Knapp, a staff therapist at Penn State Counseling and Psychological Services (CAPS), said. "They may be using hopeful words, but don't look like they mean them."

Although uncommon, some people may commit suicide on an impulse, Knapp said.

But overall to consider someone suicidal, the counselor would have to feel like the person was likely to harm himself. The prison officials didn't think Kulp would, Immel said.