On April 5, 2022, 53-year-old, Mark Wayne Stovall died in the custody of Upshur County Jail in Gilmer, Texas. He had been incarcerated only since March 31, five days earlier. He died of natural causes, which, specifically, was a pulmonary artery aneurysm.

Suicide Prevention in Texas County Jails

Many experts in jail suicide believe statistics clearly show that most inmate suicides are preventable. There are numerous statistics which have revealed easily recognizable threats to the lives of inmates. One of the easiest to pinpoint for the purpose of prevention measures is that the second most inmate suicides (24%) occur within the first 24 hours of incarceration. Most (27%) occur in days 2 through 14. This is true whether or not the inmates who took their own lives in jail had been identified as potentially suicidal during intake screening.

Another statistic that could be a focus of suicide prevention measures is that 93% of Texas county jail suicide victims hang themselves. On the one hand, it may seem easy to ensure that prisoners have nothing to hang themselves with nor to hang from. On the other hand, this seemingly simple solution can seem more like a cruel punishment. For instance, clothes are made of paper to ensure there is nothing with which to make a ligature, and the form of bedding the inmate is given can’t be used for that purpose, either.

Learn more in Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3 of this continuing series.

Making implications that a person or entity has participated in wrongdoing is never intended on this website. Each of the posts is intended as a resource of help to prisoners in county jails in the state of Texas.

–Guest Contributor