When suicides like that of 34-year-old Matthew Glen Wood at the City of Mansfield Jail in Mansfield, Texas, occur in Texas county jails, the Texas Commission on Jail Standards (TCJS) conducts an investigation, as do the Texas Rangers. Due to the importance of suicide prevention, answers are sought by TCJS to the question of whether or not the suicide could have been prevented.

Suicide prevention is the topic explored in the previously mentioned report by the National Institute of Corrections (NICIC)’s, and the following is more information from that report.

Risk Factors

A risk factor is a characteristic found among certain groups of people who have committed suicide more frequently than other people groups. The acrostic “SAD PERSONS” was devised to make it easier to identify the characteristics that could indicate a person’s vulnerability to suicidal thoughts and intentions, as follows:

• Sad
• Age
• Depression
• Previous Suicide Attempt
• Ethanol Abuse
• Rational Thought Loss
• Social Support Lacking
• No Spouse
• Sickness

The following are characteristics of high-risk inmates:

• The very young and very old
• Male
• Previously or currently at risk for suicide
• Previous attempts at suicidal
• Current intoxication
• No family
• A recent relationship breakup
• Single, divorced, and widowed
• Chronic health problems
• Unable to solve problems

See Part 1 and Part 2 of this three-part series.

All of this site’s posts are intended as helpful resources for prisoners and former Texas jail inmates. Implying wrongs on the part of persons or institutions is never intended on this website.

–Guest Contributor