Risk Factors for Inmate Suicide – Part 2

The National Commission on Correctional Health Care (NCCHC) has identified the following facts regarding suicide and inmates in a particular group:

• The period when there is the highest rate of suicide is during initial pre-trial lockup, which is immediately following an inmate’s arrest and booking. 
• The status of being recently arrested has a much higher rate of suicide assempts than probation, parole, and no involvement with the criminal justice system.
• The highest prevalence of suicide in the group of recently arrested inmates is among those with substance use disorders.

Recommendations to Reduce Custodial Suicides

A clinical and forensic psychiatrist who is an authority in the mental health field and associated with the above-mentioned study makes the following recommendations:

• Consider making bolstered efforts at suicide prevention within the criminal justice system at multiple points of contact.
• Take special care to ensure that inmates at an elevated risk of suicide have been identified and given access to appropriate services.
• All law enforcement personnel, legal counsel, correctional staff, psychiatrists, and medical personnel within the jails should be made aware of the risk of suicide among the vulnerable members of the inmate population. They should also know that individuals are best able to get the help they need through screening, support, and access to services. 

Learn more in Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, and Part 6 of this ongoing series.

There is never an intention on this website to make implications of wrongdoing having occurred on the part of any person or entity.  Each post is meant as a resource to benefit prisoners now or previously held in Texas county jails.

–Guest Contributor