Thirty-six-year-old Christopher Beau Duboise attempted suicide in May 2019 within minutes of being admitted into the Midland County Jail in Midland, Texas. He died two days later. This type of event occurs all too often in Texas county jails, in spite of efforts to prevent suicide made by the Texas Commission on Jail Standards (TCJS).

The minimum jail standards determined by TCJS address the safety of inmates, and suicide prevention is a necessary factor in jail safety. The matter of stopping prisoners from attempting suicide begins when an inmate is booked into a Texas county jail. Members of every jail staff must be trained on how to identify and deal with potentially suicidal inmates.

The jail staff members whose duties include booking inmates are provided with supplemental training to give them a heightened understanding of how to recognize potential suicidal tendencies in an inmate. This is important because inmates are placed in areas of a jail where the level of supervision is deemed appropriate.

The general population of inmates must be observed in a face-to-face check every 60 minutes at most. The prisoners who are at risk because of being potentially suicidal or mentally ill are observed every 30 minutes at most.

Inmates’ lives are saved because of the supervision provided during inmate checks. When supervision is handled as required by Texas jail standards, fewer fights break out and opportunities for inmates to commit suicide are minimized.

Learn more in Part 1 and this ongoing series.

The posts on this website are offered as potentially helpful resources to benefit prisoners currently or formerly housed in county jails in Texas. This site never has an intention of suggesting that improprieties have occurred, whether on the part of persons or entities.

–Guest Contributor