Justin Michael Henderson was booked into Harris County Jail in Houston, Texas, on December 9th, 2020. Detention officers were alerted about Mr. Henderson on February 4th, 2021, with fellow inmates saying he had made noises during the night and was unresponsive. The 35-year-old died that day from the toxic effects of heroin, according to the custodial death report.

High-Risk Groups for Suicide

Suicide prevention in jails is very important because suicide is the number one cause of custodial death. Many studies have been done on how to do a better job of preventing suicide. Training is given to members of jail staff for the purpose of identifying inmates who are at risk for suicide. The following are examples of high-risk groups:

• Elderly people, particularly males
• Young males (ages 15-49)
• Indigenous individuals
• Persons with mental illness
• Inmates who abuse alcohol and/or drugs
• People who have made a previous suicide attempt
• Inmates in custody 

Simply being an inmate in custody makes a person vulnerable for suicide. While intake screening is recognized as an important point in which to identify at-risk inmates, jail staff members should be alert at all times to signs of inmates being suicidal.

Another example of a potentially suicidal group is sentenced male prisoners, who have a rate of almost six times the rate of males outside of prison and in the general population in society.

Learn more in this continuing series.

The purpose of providing posts on this website is to help inmates currently and formerly incarcerated in Texas in a county jail. There is no intention on this site to suggest that any person or organization has been a participant in wrongdoing.

–Guest Contributor