a pending federal lawsuit<\/a> against the sheriff\u2019s office. Previously, they told Investigative Post that Hager\u2019s criminal history was tied to a life of drug addiction, mental illness and fighting for survival on the streets.<\/p>\n\u201cHe wasn\u2019t dangerous at all,\u201d Jennifer Hager, his sister, said in 2024. \u201cAny of the trouble he got himself into was just trying to live. He was homeless.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hager enlisted in the U.S. Army after high school and was honorably discharged after a few years of service. Because of a back injury and a diagnosis of schizophrenia in his 30s, Hager received disability benefits.<\/p>\n
It took nearly three years for the state\u2019s Commission of Correction to investigate Hager\u2019s death, a practice it follows after any inmate dies in state or local jails. The investigation is done by a board of medical experts, who then share their findings with the commission and, in this case, with jail and county officials.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The commission\u2019s report is based on interviews with Alden staff, including a psychiatrist, two corrections officers and at least one nurse. Much of it is redacted.<\/p>\n
According to the report, William Hager\u2019s final stay in county jail began August 3, 2023. He had been arrested on a warrant for a number of charges, including criminal mischief and petit larceny.<\/p>\n
Hager awaited arraignment at the downtown holding center until August 17, when he was transferred to Alden. In that time, the report noted that Hager lost 12.6 pounds in 14 days.\u00a0But nurses at the holding center failed to notify Alden doctors \u2014 the first misstep the commission attributed to medical staff.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The report also raised other questions about medical staff\u2019s treatment of Hager:<\/p>\n
Why no \u201cclearly established diagnosis for Hager\u201d had been done, considering his psychiatric history and evidence of psychosis.\u00a0
\nWhy medical staff failed to follow up on Hager\u2019s side effects of extreme thirst.
\nWhy psychiatrists failed to monitor Hager for metabolic syndrome, the state norm to adhere to for any inmate on an antipsychotic medication.<\/p>\n
The report mandated a \u201cquality assurance review\u201d led by the county jail\u2019s chief medical officer and report its findings to the commission. In January, the sheriff\u2019s office completed the review but \u201cdid not identify any policy or procedure violations by health staff.\u201d<\/p>\n
The state attorney general\u2019s office also investigates jail deaths. A spreadsheet of the results of such investigations indicates that the AG concluded: \u201cOfficer did not cause death.\u201d<\/p>\n
The view from inside Hager\u2019s unit<\/p>\n
From the middle of August 2023 until his death on Nov. 19 of that year, Hager stayed in a special wing at the Alden jail called Medical Unit 2, or M2. He often stayed in his room, pacing or sitting on his bed, though former inmates occasionally convinced Hager to watch TV or go outside to stretch and socialize.\u00a0<\/p>\n
One officer, referred to as D.G. in the report, told the commission that Hager \u201cwas a quiet man \u2026 probably the quietist [sic] incarcerated individual that he ever had.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
According to the report, M2 is designed to support inmates with mental health conditions. Indeed, its cells share walls with doctors and nurses, the premise being that inmates will get close, around-the-clock attention, if need be.<\/p>\n
That did not happen, Strachan told Investigative Post.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey just didn\u2019t care. They were just there, like, \u2018Oh, you don\u2019t want to take your pills? No problem.\u2019 And they would just walk away,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
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<\/p>\n
Nicholas Strachan holds a grievance letter he and fellow inmate Anthony Ervolina submitted to jail officials two days after William Hager\u2019s death, taking issue with Hager\u2019s treatment in custody. Photo: Adam Smith-Perez.<\/p>\n
Strachan wondered how it was possible that medical staff could be on the other side of the wall\u00a0 \u201cchatting and laughing\u201d while Hager\u2019s health deteriorated.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re over here. Bill\u2019s struggling,\u201d Strachan said. \u201cHe should be under 24-hour care with somebody who\u2019s really there for him. To convince him that he\u2019s not living in literal hell.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hager became convinced that Lake Erie had dried up, according to a corrections officer interviewed in the state\u2019s report. Strachan said the same thing, as did Anthony Ervolina, another inmate who lived a few cells down from Hager.\u00a0<\/p>\n
As a result, Hager stopped flushing the toilet and showering.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe was talking about how everything was getting smaller. How the world was shrinking and everything,\u201d said Ervolina.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The report concluded that Hager\u2019s psychosis had not been addressed by Alden\u2019s staff. Furthermore, it was his medication Zyprexa, which had caused Hager extreme thirst.<\/p>\n
\u201cHager\u2019s complaints of increased thirst were indicative of these side effects occurring but were not addressed by the attending psychiatrist,\u201d the report stated, adding that the psychiatrist had also failed to order lab work to assess the medication\u2019s other side effects.<\/p>\n
Ervolina and Strachan often spoke to corrections officers about Hager. They said they told guards that Hager had stopped eating \u2014 at one point, he was convinced the chicken inmates were fed was human meat \u2014 and abandoned personal hygiene. They said Hager frequently defecated in his clothes, which the inmates would wash for him.\u00a0<\/p>\n
They said their pleas for help fell on deaf ears.<\/p>\n
\u201cI told the [corrections officers] he\u2019s trying to kill himself. He\u2019s drinking tons of water. He\u2019s throwing up violently every day,\u201d said Ervolina.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cYou could tell he was just dying.\u201d<\/p>\n
Final moments<\/p>\n
According to officer D.G., on the day that Hager died, he\u2019d observed Hager drinking \u201ca lot of water\u201d \u2014 \u201cseveral cups in a row\u201d \u2014 but told commission staff that it did not strike him as odd enough to notify medical staff.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Two medical entries were made for Hager on that day \u2014 one in the morning, which noted that Hager \u201crefused to go to mental health\u201d and another, around 1 p.m., when Hager spoke with a mental health counselor.<\/p>\n
Guards had done their rounds throughout the day, but no one had heard from Hager.\u00a0When a corrections officer went to check on him, at 7:09 p.m., Hager \u201cbegan to shake, and he was looking up towards the cell light and then he fell down,\u201d according to the report.<\/p>\n
That officer called a medical emergency.<\/p>\n
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The following moments were not detailed in the commission\u2019s report, but according to Strachan and Ervolina, the emergency response team lacked \u201cthe proper life saving device,\u201d causing a 30-minute delay in treatment.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think that directly contributed to Bill not being able to live,\u201d Strachan said.<\/p>\n
Jail officials conducted internal reviews of Hager\u2019s death and denied any wrongdoing.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe facility indicated that they disagreed with the Medical Review Board findings regarding Hager\u2019s diagnosis and side effects to prescribed medication,\u201d the report stated.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Adam Smith-Perez, who covers urban affairs for Investigative Post, is a Report For America<\/a> corps member.<\/p>\n \t\t\tposted 1 hour ago – June 11, 2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"William Hager died of water intoxication at the Erie County Correctional Facility in Alden. A state report \u2014…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":216369,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[136,24813,138,137,45944],"class_list":["post-216368","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-erie","tag-erie","tag-erie-county-sheriff","tag-erie-headlines","tag-erie-news","tag-jail-deaths"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/216368","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=216368"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/216368\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/216369"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=216368"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=216368"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=216368"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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