Brandon Kyle Taylor’s means of death listed on the custodial death report is “hanging, strangulation.” He was an inmate of Young County Jail, and he was 31 years old when he was found hanging in the Graham, Texas, jail on March 21, 2023. The only information from the summary of how the death occurred that hasn’t been covered here was that he used bedding to hang himself.

Suicides – Time Since Admission

The median amount of time that inmates were in a county jail before committing suicide was 11 days. The shortest time frame was 2 hours, and the longest was about 14 months. Approximately 18 percent of inmate suicides occurred within the first 24 hours of admittance, and 42% happened within the first two weeks. Two-thirds of the inmates committed suicide within a month of admission to jail.

To put the above statistics into context, it helps to understand how long inmates typically spend in jail before taking their own life. In most jurisdictions in Texas, the average length of stay is 10 to 25 days. Smaller jails often have short stays. What this suggests is that most inmates are only staying for several weeks—the average amount of time overall is also several weeks.

Standard recommendations for suicide prevention are that preventative resources should be frontloaded in the first week of the inmate’s stay.

Learn more in Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, and Part 4 of this five-part series.

With the continuing goal of helping Texas prisoners held in a local county or municipal jail, this website was created. There is no intention of making accusations against organizations or people on this site.

–Guest Contributor