Municipal and County Jail Inmate Suicide

• In another recent headline, a 56-year-old man in a North Carolina county jail was discovered dead in his cell on Friday, August 5, 2022. He had apparently committed suicide, though further details were not provided.

Suicide is the leading cause of death in city and county jails across the country. For this reason, suicide prevention is a major focus of the procedures required in jail operations.

In Texas, like other jails, the intake procedure at booking is a common point in which potentially suicidal inmates are identified. Jail staff must be trained in identifying, supervising, documenting, and handling inmates with mental disabilities or with suicidal ideations, per the Texas Commission on Jail Standards.

A complication that is difficult to overcome is that virtually any inmate could become suicidal due to various circumstances. For instance, most custodial suicides occur in the first 2 to 14 days of incarceration. The second most suicides in local jails occur in the first 24 hours that a person is in jail. An increase in the risk of suicide is often associated with court dates and sentencing, as well.

With understaffing being a major issue in many jails, providing adequate supervision of all potentially at-risk inmates can be a seemingly insurmountable struggle.

Learn more in Pt.1,  Pt.2, Pt.3, Pt.4, Pt.5, Pt.6, Pt.7, Pt.8, Pt.9, Pt.10, Pt.11, Pt.12, Pt.13, Pt.14, Pt.15, Pt.16, Pt.17, and this continuing series.

This website is intended as a resource for Texas inmates in city and county jails. Insinuating that people or entities have engaged in misdeeds is never intended on this site.

–Guest Contributor