A Woman Who Wasn’t on Suicide Watch Hangs Herself

A news release on April 5, 2023, tells of the death of a female inmate in a county outside Texas. The woman was in her 40s, and, according to jail protocol, she was screened for suicide. She was not placed on suicide watch. Her body was discovered hanging in her cell at 12:53 AM on March 20, 2023. Efforts to revive her were unsuccessful.

Studies about jail suicides have found that some people don’t admit they have suicidal ideations because they don’t want to go through the things involved with a suicide watch. Inmates who are known to be suicidal, in some jails, lose all comforts for the sake of preventing them from hanging themselves. Hanging is, by far, the way most inmates in jail commit suicide.

Research has also revealed that people can be at a heightened risk for suicide during different phases of their incarceration. Bad news from home can result in an inmate taking their own life. Court dates can be traumatic, and a court judgment sometimes leads to a decision to commit suicide.

Many times in jails, people are unsuccessful in their suicide attempts. There is a line of thought that there is no excuse for jail suicides because following jail protocols should prevent them in virtually every case.

Learn more in Part 1 and this continuing series.

Helping Texas jail detainees and their families with resources is one of the purposes of this website. There is no intention of suggesting that people or organizations have been involved in misdeeds.

–Guest Contributor