An investigative report on a jail outside of Texas reveals that the state has a custodial suicide rate higher than the national average. One particular jail has been spotlighted due to a sharp increase in suicides. Research for that state shows that health care is the number one cause of custodial deaths and suicides are the second leading cause. In a recent ten-year period, 64 prisoners in the state jails died by suicide.

Various factors contribute to inmate suicides. At the county jail being spotlighted, an increase in suicides coincided with two issues:

• A change was made in the third-party medical service provider for inmates at the jail and
• Records show an ongoing problem with the jailers conducting required inmate checks and making accurate records of those face-to-face observations.

Third-Party Inmate Medical Care

Health care providers in jails have contributing roles associated with suicides. For example, during the intake process for new detainees, a member of the health care staff conducts a mental health screening. This single component of intake has the most profound effect on whether an at-risk inmate receives the help and protection needed.

Industry standards for identifying suicidal risk factors are supposedly followed at the jail. If during the intake process or at a later point, a medical staff member identifies an inmate as being potentially suicidal, the inmate is placed on “suicide watch.” This status of the inmate is supposed to continue until a mental health professional has evaluated that individual and determined that they are not a risk to themselves.

When an inmate is in suicide watch, the following occurs:

• Their personal property is removed from their possession temporarily,
• They are housed in an area of the jail set apart for at-risk inmates,
• Corrections officers and medical staff members make frequent face-to-face observations of the inmate.

Learn more in this ongoing series.

All of this website’s posts are meant as helpful resources for Texas inmates. It is never intended to suggest that individuals or institutions have engaged in any wrongs.

–Guest Contributor