A record high number of men and women in jail are committing suicide in the United States. Most incidents do not get major attention and are only known to the families of the prisoners involved and the jail staff.
Occasionally, suicides get national attention. Last year the death of Sandra Bland in the Waller County Jail in Texas gained widespread and continuing coverage on TV and print media. Although a number of friends and family suggested she might have been murdered, the local district attorney’s investigation determined it was a suicide.
Jail suicides are a major problem in the United States, and may be back on the rise. As a professor of social policy at New York University’s School of Social Work, I have studied and written on jail suicides on numerous occasions, especially in the 1990s. Rates of jail suicides are four times higher than suicides in the general population. Most of those committing suicide in jail are young people.
Progress in eliminating jail suicides through prevention programs may be at risk. But, why?
Progress in Prevention Is at Stake
In the mid 1980s, when the first research on jail suicides emerged, the rate was about 105 suicides per 100,000 inmates. These rates are for jails only, which are used for short term stays, while prison stays tend to be for much longer periods of time. By 2006 the rate had declined to about 38 suicides per 100,000 inmates. This drop occurred even though the rates of incarceration in jails has more than doubled.
The reason for the decline is important to note. Jail inmates are “wards of the state” and have a legal right to be protected and receive needed attention upon being incarcerated. These rights were granted in the 1970s via several court decisions.
This means counties can be sued if someone dies while incarcerated. Often, these lawsuits lead to settlements in excess of $1 million to families of inmates who kill themselves.
