After reviewing the circumstances of an inmate's apparent suicide on Saturday, the warden of the Allegheny County Jail said yesterday that his employees acted properly and he did not anticipate any changes in policy as a result of the death.

Dr. Shiva Lal Acharya, 33, was found hanged from a bedsheet in his cell, Warden Ramon Rustin said.

The Nepalese doctor who resided in Chicago was being held on charges that he caused the death of Wisconsin motorcyclist Keith Brown, 46, in a September crash on the Pennsylvania Turnpike during a high-speed chase with police.

The Allegheny County medical examiner ruled Dr. Acharya's cause of death to be asphyxiation by hanging.

Though the county police have not closed the case, Assistant Superintendent James Morton said all signs point to a suicide because Dr. Acharya was alone in his cell, which was locked from the outside.

Warden Ramon Rustin said Dr. Acharya was housed in a special needs pod of the jail, which is a transition from the mental health pod to the general population.

The doctor's nephew, Ramesh Lamichhane, said on Sunday that Dr. Acharya had been diagnosed with bipolar disorder and had been taking medication in jail.

The warden said he had not reviewed all of Dr. Acharya's medical records, but a placement in the mental health pod indicates that jail personnel believed the prisoner needed extra supervision.

Warden Rustin said he did not know if Dr. Acharya ever had been on suicide watch, but bed linens, among other items, are barred throughout the mental health pod.

At some point, Warden Rustin said, evaluators determined that Dr. Acharya no longer needed to be in the mental health pod, so he was moved to special needs, in which prisoners still are watched closely.

Mr. Rustin said Dr. Acharya was found in his cell between 11:15 a.m. and 11:20 a.m. on Saturday. Corrections officers check on each prisoner every 15 to 30 minutes in that pod, and Warden Rustin said officers were conducting those checks correctly during that time.

The warden said he anticipated no disciplinary measures against any employees or changes in policy, though he said that could change if problems are exposed in the full reports by the medical examiner's office or county police.