After officers called for emergency medical services (EMS) for 21-year-old Sappi Franck, he was transported by ambulance to Dell Seton Medical Center. Once Mr. Franck, who was a Travis County Jail detainee in Austin, Texas, reached the hospital, he was admitted into intensive care. Sappi Franck was pronounced deceased on September 13, 2023, at 7:36 p.m.

Suicide in Jails

More information that is helpful for training about jail suicide follows:

Depression is the single best indicator that a detainee is at risk for suicide. The following are some of the signs and symptoms of depression:

• Experiencing feelings of an inability to go on, hopelessness, or helplessness
• Crying and extreme sadness
• Silence or withdrawal
• Loss of or increase in appetite and/or weight
• Awakening early, insomnia, or excessive sleeping
• Mood and behavior have wide variations, tenseness
• Lethargy (slowing of movements or non-reactive state)
• Loss of self-esteem
• Loss of interest in people, appearance, or activities
• Excessive self-blaming
• Strong guilt feelings
• Expresses or evidences strong guilt and/or shame of offenses
• Talks about and/or threatens suicide
• Under the influence of alcohol or drugs
• Previous suicide attempts and/or a history of mental illness
• Severe aggressiveness or agitation
• Projects hopelessness and/or helplessness, has no sense of a future
• Expresses unusual or great concern over what will happen to them

Learn more in Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, and Part 4 of this five-part series.

This site, as one of its purposes, provides information to help Texas detainees who are or have been incarcerated in a county or municipal jail in the state. Insinuating that an individual or organization has been involved in wrongdoing is never intended.

–Guest Contributor