This article, National Study of Jail Suicide: 20 Years Later was written in order to help understand the changes that have taken place and the efforts that have been made over the last two decades on suicide and suicide tendencies with the jail population. The author, Lindsay M. Hayes, proves that over the past 20 years (1985-2006) there have been significant changes made within the jail system and suicide prevention of this special population. Some suicidal traits or indicators have been reduced, while many others have just changed or even increased the risk to suicide, within our jail systems, throughout the country. The table provided within the attached article, (page 243) shows how different the specific traits within the study compare …show more content…
However, as this study clearly indicates the risk assessment must continue beyond the entry point. These inmates should be screened for signs of “stress or duress” and possible “suicidal triggers” such as “depression, previous attempts or severity of charges,” which could lead someone to suicide thinking. These assessment need to be done on a regular basis and throughout their jail stay. It is also clear that more trained counselors, clergy and/or health care visits should include further assessment for suicidal risk. I think this information is important because while many people see inmates simply as the lowest level of society, these people are still human beings, and have families and loved ones. Many of these young men, who are brought in do not deserve a death sentence. In jail, one is usually being detained prior to sentencing and they typically have not been found “guilty” yet. Don’t we all have the right to be innocent until proven guilty? Should we all be safe, even from …show more content…
With this study, I think it should have been easy to identify the most at risk states or even regions, which could help those of us in suicide prevention, the sheriffs and or lawmakers want to work toward improving suicide prevention policies, guidelines, training, and assessment tools within the most impacted jail systems. It would have been a plus to the readers to identify if these problems exist nationwide, or if they are more prevalent in specific areas. This would also identify if there are better systems that could be mimicked, so those policies and prevention methods could be implemented in the jail systems that seem to have a bigger suicide rate of their
Psychiatric and general hospitals are required to, “Conduct a risk assessment that identifies specific characteriscts of the individual served and environmental features that may increase or decrease the risk for suicide” (Joint Commission, 2010). Many psychiatric hospitals have extended their services in the last few decades to drug and alcohol rehabilitation and these admissions and their environments will now require a complete suicide risk assessment, if it has not been done so before.
The issue chosen by the researchers, is a relevant issue facing the criminal justice system. The predominance of mental health problems among incarcerated persons in both prisons and jails present major problems for each component of the criminal justice system; law enforcement, courts, and corrections. The entire criminal justice system is negatively impacted and overburdened by untreated mental illness. According to Bureau of Justice Statistics, more than half of all prison and jail inmates have a mental health problem (James & Glaze, 2006).
Despite the valiant efforts health care workers have made, suicide remains the leading cause of deaths in Canadian prisons (Olson, 2012). Prevention and education on how to minimize and stop these unfortunate occurrences from happening is vital. In one article, Olson (2012) talks about how although the prison population does continue to grow, there happens to be a lack of funding, as well as an overall lack of support for this particular group of individuals. It is evident that the needs of the mentally abnormal offender comes as a last priority, as a result of their overall vulnerability, which can easily be exploited in these environments. Because they are criminally guilty individuals who have no freedom and minimal legal protection, they
In 2010 of April Danarory Countryman of Westchester County Prison did something that an unusually high number of state prison inmates have done, she hanged herself in her cell. Countryman’s suicide was one of 17 in state in state lockups in 2010. During the year of 2010 suicide rates went from 17.8 suicides per 100,000 inmates to 20.7. This is five times more the suicides that have been going on in the recent years. (Parrish1)
(Winkler 1992). The acts take place at these specific times and days due to the
On the surface, America looks like a thriving nation. The stock market is at an all-time high, technology has drastically improved people’s quality of life, and the Iraq and Afghanistan wars are finally coming to an end. However, beneath this illustrious veneer lies a country plagued by depression, anxiety, and worst of all, suicide. Suicide “claims more lives than war, murder, and natural disasters combined,” and causes extreme anguish for friends and family who must deal with the aftermath of the tragedy (“Suicide Facts and Figures” para. 1). Some efforts such as the Trevor Project and Yellow Ribbon Week have been made to combat this epidemic, yet unfortunately, society ignores a segment of the population at an alarmingly high risk for self-harm: offenders currently incarcerated in the US justice system, a number totaling more than two million people (Wagner and Bernadette para. 2). Authorities focus on stopping the physical act of a suicide, but not why prisoners feel the need to harm themselves. Aristotle’s theory of virtue ethics gives unique insight on this topic. In short, virtue ethics focuses on developing the whole character of a person instead of only focusing on someone’s actions. The Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) must launch a comprehensive justice reform plan based on rehabilitating inmates’ bodies, hearts, and minds to mitigate the suicide crisis faced in prisons across the nation, restore the lives of millions, and save taxpayers money by replacing
The Jail facilities should be implement different procedures in preventing suicides and responding to attempt that may occur. As a result of the high rate of suicide in Jail, every staff member from these facilities should be train in how to interact with this type of inmates. Communication between the Jail stuff about each inmate and the risk that each represent because of previous suicide history are very important. Many inmates don’t even have a previous suicide history; however, this doesn’t mean that are not a high risk to commit suicide. The facilities stuff needs to ensure the safety of each inmate while in custody. One of the main reason of suicide of inmates while are in Jail is the understaff at many facilities. In many facilities
According to a 2006 Bureau of Justice Statistics report found that over half of the inmates in both prisons and in jails had a problem concerning their mental health (James & Glaze, 2006). The estimates in this report were separated by federal prisons, which contained 45 percent of inmates suffering from mental illness, 56 percent in state prisons, and
The newly implemented Division of Adult Correction-Prisons guidelines, developed by Jeffrey Metzner of the University of Colorado School of Medicine, indicates that the division, “recognizes the need to have a comprehensive suicide prevention program and that all departmental staff shares the responsibility for preventing suicide.”
Criminal justice system has also been linked as a risk factor for suicide. Individuals under criminal justice supervision in the community (e.g., parole, probation) carry an odds ratio for suicide of 1.82 in men and 3.03 in women (Webb et al., 2011). The effects are not just associated with individuals incarcerated but also individuals who have any association with the system. In another study researchers examined the gender and racial differences in suicide attempters and ideators in a high-risk community corrections population (Mccullumsmith et al., 2003). Participants who reported attempting suicide were more likely to be White, female, previously married, have less than a high school education, and a higher chance of living in a shelter
These individuals are of the clear majority of known cases because of the questioning process when entering the facilities. Jennifer M. Reingle Gonzalez, PhD, et al. says that in a prison setting, there is much variation in screening and treatment for mental health. Gonzalez, et al. also said, ?the use of pharmacotherapy, in conjunction with counseling and self-help groups, to treat mental health conditions in correctional settings has been largely accepted in the correctional community; however, many medications are expensive and, therefore, not offered widely within
According to Daniel (2007), “Suicide is the third leading cause of death in U.S. state and federal prisons, exceeded only by natural causes and AIDS” (p. 409). However, in jails this is not the case. Figure 6 looks at mortality rates within the jail population from another report by the BJS. According to Noonan, Rohloff, and Ginder (2015), “Suicide has been the leading cause of death in jails every year since 2000. In 2013, a third (34%) of jail inmate deaths were due to suicide” (p. 1). This is a 9 percent increase just from 2012. 60 percent of these suicides were inmates between the ages of 25 and 44 (Noonan et al., 2015, p. 3). Between 2000 and 2013, the mortality rate for suicide among male inmates was 1.5 times the rate for female inmates (Noonan et al., 2015, p. 3). So even though female inmates are more likely to be mentally ill than male inmates, male inmates are more likely to commit suicide because of mental illness. Mental illness is an obvious risk factor for suicide. Incarceration worsens mental disorders which increases the chance of suicide among inmates.
This week clinical I felt better prepared than I did with my first week. I was able to focus a lot more on interpersonal skills and develop therapeutic relationship with my patients. In terms of Mental Status Examination (MSE), this assessment provided me with a helpful base of information from which to observe changes, progress, and monitor risks. Especially, suicide risk assessment is a gateway to patient treatment and management. The purpose of suicide risk assessment is to identify treatable and modifiable risks and protective factors that inform the patient’s treatment and safety management requirements. I got insight into how important it is to document suicide risk assessments with sufficient information. Documentation of suicide risk assessments facilitates continuity of care and promotes communication between staff members across changing shifts. It is easy for suicidal patients to “fall through the cracks” of a busy psychiatric unit that has rapid patient turnover of admissions and discharges, and mostly during shift change. Asking question such as “What is your view of the future?” or “Do you think things will get better or worse?” helped me to elicit important information regarding patients suicidal ideation. Additionally, how my patients expressed their hope about the future assisted me to identify, prioritize, and integrate risk and protective factors into an overall assessment of the patient’s suicide risk and include in MSE.
This is information from the textbook, which adds to the article. The main relation of this article is about suicide taking place in the United States prisons and how suicides have come to decrease in the last 20-35 years. Suicides is significantly valuable to the family, prisons as well as the officers without the officer's assistants there will be no progression when it comes decreasing suicides. This very much related to administration of
The limitations in prior research inspired the current study which aimed to review research investigating patterns of self-inflicted deaths or suicide among early stage male prisoners and long term prisoners in England and Wales, as well as considering implications for interventions. Eleven English language peer-reviewed studies (2003–2015) met the inclusion criteria. The reviewed papers highlighted particular patterns or factors that are synonymous with suicide among the targeted population. Previous studies suggest that male prison suicide is largely a product of the restrictive prison regime, isolation, and psychiatric illnesses among other factors. Factors that were continuously associated with suicide in prisons among early stage and long term male prisoners highlighted by the current study included psychological factors and substance abuse as the most significant inflictions. Adjustment to prison regime, entrapment and poor social and family support complete the list of major contributory factors to male prison suicides. The only differences between the groups were the frequency of effect of particular factors on decisions to take one’s life. A large number of methodological concerns within these studies were also noted. These included the limitations posed by face to face interviews in some qualitative studies, in which participants could have been dissuaded from admitting that certain issues such as childhood sexual abuse were potential triggers to want to end their