On April 30, 2021, 39-year-old Nicholas Orion Vanwyhe died in the Travis County Jail in Austin, Texas. He used a bed sheet to fashion a ligature and hanged himself. Mr. Vanwyhe had been booked into the jail 15 days earlier, and reports show that he had made suicidal statements.

As mentioned previously, the Texas Commission on Jail Standards is the entity tasked with providing minimum jail standards. Their responsibilities encompass the issue of suicide prevention.

A published article in a professional magazine for the psychiatric industry has stated that suicide prevention in jails is the responsibility of administrative, clinical, and custodial staff members. The article references a study showing that the following factors have contributed to a rising increase in the frequency of custodial suicides:

• Class action lawsuits related to suicide;
• Deinstitutionalization of individuals with mental illness;
• A lack of community programs for criminals who are mentally ill;
• Prison diversionary programs; and
• Legal reforms.

In-depth studies on custodial suicides reveal many statistics that could be of help in preventing suicide in jails. For instance, the time period in which most suicides occur is from 7 p.m. to 7 a.m., and it is suspected that reduced supervision during the night is the reason most inmates commit suicide during these hours.

See Part 1 and this continuing series.

Posts provided on this website are intended to assist inmates now in county jails in Texas as well as those who were previously incarcerated. There is no intention on this website to imply that people or institutions have engaged in wrongdoing.

–Guest Contributor