Suicide Prevention Recommendations for Jails

The suicide prevention resources prepared by the National Commission on Correctional Health Care’s American Foundation for Suicide Prevention (NCCHC-AFSP) include recommendations for jails, which include the following. 

Ensure Adequate Staffing

One of the recognized struggles for county jails is that budgeting challenges sometimes result in understaffing. In any correctional setting in which there is inadequate staffing, the risk of inmate suicide remains high. Other issues that further exacerbate the problem of inmate suicide are lack of access to members of the mental health staff, inmate isolation, and decreased inmate supervision performed by jailers. 

Adequate staffing refers to supervisory staff members but also mental health staffing. When there is a shortage of mental health personnel, the ability to accomplish comprehensive suicide risk assessments is greatly hindered.

Provide Comprehensive Training

Recurring suicide prevention training should be provided to all jail staff members who interact with inmates. The training should include the following topics:

• Why correctional environments are conducive to suicidal behavior;
• Risk factors to inmate suicide;
• How to identify suicidal inmates in spite of their denial of risk;
• High-risk suicide periods;
• How to avoid negative attitudes toward suicide prevention; and
• Behavioral and verbal cues that provide warning signs and symptoms of being suicidal.

Learn more in Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3 of this ongoing series.

This website does not intend to make implications that persons or entities have engaged in wrongs. Helping inmates currently and previously detained in county jails in Texas is the purpose of posts on this site.

–Guest Contributor