Forty-year-old Brian Christopher Jenkins was recognized as a suicide risk when he was booked into Lamar County Jail in Paris, Texas, on April 21, 2021. He was placed on a “clothed suicide watch” yet given a mattress cover. He was discovered deceased in his cell on April 23, 2021, having hung himself using a mattress cover fashioned into a ligature.

Suicide prevention is one of the responsibilities of Texas county jails. The Texas Commission on Jail Standards provides mandatory guidelines that include the issue of preventing inmates from committing suicide. The process of ensuring that inmates are protected from suffering a custodial death begins with screening during the booking process.

All jailers must be trained to recognize signs that an individual is at risk of committing suicide. The jailers responsible for intake screening and involvement in the booking process require additional training along those lines.  The training equips employees to recognize, supervise, document, and handle potentially suicidal inmates as well as those who are mentally disabled.

Intervention and emergency treatment are addressed so that staff members know procedures for suicide prevention and intervention before a suicide occurs. Their training also includes procedures during a suicide attempt-in-progress and for dealing with the serious deterioration of an inmate’s mental condition.

The Texas Code mandates that an approved screening instrument for identifying potentially suicidal inmates must be completed immediately as inmates are booked into a jail.

Learn more in this ongoing series.

This website provides posts to assist Texas county jail inmates, both current and past. It is never intended to imply that individuals or organizations have engaged in wrongs.

–Guest Contributor