Mya Carlton was an inmate at Kent County Correctional Facility when she was found unresponsive from an act of self-harm in her cell. Ms. Carlton was taken to a hospital, where she was pronounced deceased three days later on June 13, 2025.
The address of Kent County Correctional Facility is 703 Ball Ave NE, Grand Rapids, MI 49503. The jail has a bed capacity of 1,100.
Can Jail Staff Prevent More Suicides?
Families devastated over the jail suicide deaths of their loved ones often question whether the tragedies were preventable. This question comes up frequently because suicide is the leading cause of jail deaths. Time and time again, family members share that jail staff knew that their now-deceased loved one was at risk and needed help or, at the very least, supervision.
The deaths of two inmates who died by suicide in Bibb County Jail have been in the spotlight as their families have claimed their deaths were preventable. Details follow:
- Twenty-five-year-old Dakota Smithers was incarcerated in Bibb County Jail when he died by suicide on February 10, 2020. Prior to his death, jail records indicate that on two occasions he was taken to the infirmary because he exhibited signs of depression and suicidal intentions as well as antisocial behavior. Allegedly, security videos went unmonitored for over two hours after a jailer failed to notice that Mr. Smithers had hanged himself on camera.
- On September 3, 2023, Troyce Billingslea died by suicide at Bibb County Jail. Some of Billingslea’s fellow inmates said that his cries for help were ignored. Allegedly, jailers failed to check on him and part of the problem was the jail’s leadership allowed the jail to remain dangerously understaffed.
The address of Bibb County Jail is 668 Oglethorpe St, Macon, GA 31201.
Jail populations have a high rate of individuals with treated and untreated mental health issues. In a study on jail mortality, research found that two-thirds of jail inmates have a substance abuse disorder. All these conditions increase the possibility that an inmate is at risk of suicide.
Suicide prevention training for jail staff often involves two hours of instruction. Correctional officers don’t typically have extensive training that would qualify them to deal effectively with severe mental illness. However, providing supervision conscientiously is one of the best deterrents to suicide.
Local Jail Suicide Statistics from the BJS
With data from the Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) the following insights were discovered in a comprehensive study about suicide in U.S. jails:
- Between 2001 and 2019, suicide was the cause of death for 24% to 35% of jail detainees.
- Jail suicides occurred in the inmate’s single-occupancy cell 73% of the time.
- Since they entered jail, nearly 14% of detainees between 2010 and 2019 who died by suicide had stayed a minimum of a night in a mental health services unit.
- From 2015 through 2019, 44% of the suicides that occurred in county and city jails happened within the first week and 66% happened within the first month of incarceration.
- Approximately 77% of those who died by suicide in county and municipal jails were inmates without a conviction.
As daunting as these statistics are, jail suicides can be prevented. A basic class in suicide prevention in Texas asserts that a comprehensive approach can be effective when it includes training of jail staff, signs of suicidal ideations to look for during intake, communication between staff, frequent supervision, swift intervention, and safe and appropriate housing.
