Topeka ? A Shawnee County Jail employee has invented a device that prevents inmates from hanging themselves from the air vents in their cells.

Unlike the office worker whose breakthrough software remains the property of his company, however, Robert Zwiesler may actually see some money from his invention.

Zwiesler’s invention is a simple cover that blocks inmates’ access to the vent holes while still allowing air to move freely. Since the vent covers were installed at the jail in 2003, they have been successful in preventing suicides, said Elizabeth Gillespie, the county’s corrections director.

County commissioners voted Thursday to waive their interest in Zwiesler’s design and device for $1.

Zwiesler, the jail’s facility manager and a corrections department captain, said he now plans to show the device to a Missouri company that markets to correctional facilities and has shown an interest in buying the vent covers.

Between July 1999 and October 2003, five inmates at the jail and another in the adjacent juvenile detention center hanged themselves, typically by threading strips of blanket through holes in the air vents.

Companies already sell suicide-free air vents that can be retrofitted onto the existing vent system, but they are expensive and labor-intensive.

Zwiesler’s invention is simpler.

“It’s nothing mystical or magical,” Zwiesler said. “It’s just what came to mind. There was a need and that was my job.”

Gillespie is the one who asked the commission to waive its rights to Zwiesler’s invention. She said ever since she mentioned the vent covers in an article for the American Jail Assn.’s magazine, she’s fielded numerous calls from jails across the country asking if the product is available.

Zwiesler said he doesn’t envision getting a patent for the vent covers, saying they could be redesigned with a couple simple changes. He estimates the 270 he had built for the Shawnee County Jail cost about $60 each.

“If there’s money in it, that will be a plus,” Zwiesler said.