Mason Tyler Simon was placed in a single cell after being booked into Guadalupe County Jail in Seguin, Texas, on April 1, 2022. On April 4, a detention officer discovered that Mr. Simon had used a t-shirt to hang himself from cell bars. Tragically, the 30-year-old died 25 hours later.

Another suggestion for preventing inmate suicide without great expense follows:

Require Proper Cell Check Protocols

Although careful supervision of inmates is crucial to prevent suicide, Texas county jails are frequently cited for failure to properly perform required face-to-face observations in the required timeframes. More lives could potentially be saved if jails mandated proper cell checks as a key performance indicator (KPI) for continued employment. If failure to meet this requirement resulted in termination or suspension, there would be much greater motivation to complete the cell checks properly.

Another aspect of this approach is to check surveillance footage against the observation logs from time to time. What the staff documents in the logs should match the electronic records, which are generated automatically.

The timing of inmate observations should be randomized so that they cannot be accurately predicted. Cell checks in intervals not to exceed every 15 minutes should not be conducted, for example, every 12 minutes because randomization is part of what makes this type of supervision effective in preventing inmate suicide.

What a jailer does during a cell check is also of utmost importance. Learn more in this continuing series and also in Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3.

The purpose of this website is to provide helpful resources to inmates now or previously detained in a county jail in Texas. There is no intention to implicate a person or organization in acts of wrongdoing.

–Guest Contributor