Thirty-five-year-old Miranda Louise Grayson entered Hutchinson County Jail in Borger, Texas, on May 12, 2022. The custodial death report indicates that she was in a single cell when she was found hanging from a bedsheet on May 23, 2022, at 3:17 PM. Tragically, Ms. Grayson died of strangulation caused by suicide on May 24, 2022, at 10:15 AM.

The Texas Commission on Jail Standards (TCJS) provides operational requirements for Texas county jails, and the minimum jail standards include suicide prevention measures. Many studies have been done on custodial suicides, and it’s possible they serve as guidelines to help jails make decisions on how to prevent inmates from committing suicide. The following information is from a report about jail suicides in a state other than Texas.

Data on Inmate Suicide Victims

In a state outside Texas, 76 custodial suicides were studied to extract information that might be helpful in taking more effective suicide prevention measures. The following are among the findings:

• 95% of the suicide victims with a mental health background also had a history of substance abuse.
• 41% of the inmates had received a mental health service within three days of taking their own life.
• Anxiety or agitation was displayed by 70% of the inmates prior to committing suicide.
• Details on other stressors preceding suicide include conflict between inmates in half of the suicides; 42% had recent disciplinary action; 40% exhibited fear, and 42% suffered from physical illness. One of the most common stressors was that 65% of the suicide victims had received adverse information such as disruption of relationships with family members or friends or loss of a good time.

Learn more in this ongoing series.

This website offers posts as resources meant to provide help for inmates housed in jails in Texas counties. Accusing people or entities of misdeeds is never intended on this website.

–Guest Contributor