A fellow Dallas County Jail inmate discovered Rad Douglas Harrison with a towel around his neck in December 2017. Emergency services responded to the emergency call and transferred Mr. Harrison to Parkland Memorial Hospital in Dallas, Texas. Tragically, as a result of his suicide attempt, he died on December 18, 2017.

Suicide prevention is, by necessity, standard procedure in county jails. The Texas Commission on Jail Standards (TCJS) requires all staff members to receive training that includes the prevention of inmate suicide. But suicide is a complex issue.

A study on jail suicides found that there is a subtle difference between those who attempt suicide and those who complete their suicide attempt. For example, some who attempt to commit suicide have no intention of ever completing the act. Others are persistent and use increasingly lethal methods until they die from the act. One expert in custodial psychology says these differences are usually seen in inmates aged 24 and younger, and most have a history of addiction to various substances, including opiates.

Any prior attempts at suicide place inmates at a heightened risk for again trying to commit suicide. Among the inmates who die from an act of suicide, 45% to 63% had attempted suicide on at least one previous occasion.

It has been recognized as a “best practice” to remain vigilant with regards to all inmates because the environment is in itself an indicator of a greater potential for suicide than the population that is not incarcerated. Also, there are many times when traditional warning signs of being suicidal weren’t seen before a prisoner committed suicide.

See Part 1 of this ongoing series.

This website’s posts purpose to assist inmates of Texas county jails. There is no intention on this site to infer wrongdoing on the part of people or institutions.

–Guest Contributor