William James Shandore was booked into Bexar County Jail in San Antonio, Texas, on February 10, 2021. Nine days later, an inmate providing water from cell to cell noticed that Shandore was hanging in his cell. A CODE 1 was initiated immediately by a deputy the inmate notified, but life-saving efforts were unsuccessful.

The Texas Commission on Jail Standards (TCJS) has included suicide prevention in the minimum jail standards that Texas county jails are required to uphold. The training of jail staff members is a big part of suicide prevention. The following is information from course guidelines for instructors provided by the Texas Commission on Law Enforcement.

Suicide Detection and Prevention in Jails

• Suicide is the number one cause of death in county jails with more than one-third of all custodial deaths resulting from suicide.
• Suicide prevention begins when an individual is arrested and continues throughout their incarceration.
• Experience proves that most jail suicides are preventable if there is proper implementation of a comprehensive prevention program.
• Essential elements of an effective suicide prevention program include the following:
  • Staff training
  • Intake screening
  • Staff communication
  • Safe and appropriate housing
  • Frequent observation of inmates
  • Prompt intervention
  • Human interaction between inmates and staff
  • The rate of suicide in jails is somewhere between 9 and 11 times higher than the suicide rate among the general population.

Learn more in this continuing series.

Posts are provided on this website as a way of giving assistance to inmates incarcerated in Texas county jails. There is no intention to suggest on this site that misdeeds on the part of persons or institutions have occurred.

–Guest Contributor