The Real Cost of Prisons Weblog

”The incidence of suicide in the DOC was greater than in prior years and we know that nationally the number of mentally ill entering the prison system is increasing,” Dennehy said in a statement accompanying the report.
The study concludes that guards and other staff do not have enough training in suicide prevention; guards fail to check frequently enough on at-risk inmates; some cells where suicidal inmates are held have not been stripped of items they could use to harm themselves; and inmates under suicide watch become more isolated because they are denied visits and phone calls.
The report stressed the need for more and better training.
”The key to any suicide prevention program is properly trained correctional staff,” wrote Lindsay M. Hayes, a national specialist in prison suicide prevention and author of the report. ”Because suicides are usually attempted in inmate housing units ... these incidents must be thwarted by correctional staff who have been trained in suicide prevention and are able to demonstrate and intuitive sense regarding the inmates in their care.”
There were seven state prison inmate deaths ruled to be suicides in 2006, including three in an eight-day period in December. There was one suicide in 2004, and one in 2003. Since 2000, there have been 18 DOC inmate suicides, the report said.
A convicted rapist hanged himself in his cell with an electrical cord at the maximum security Souza-Baranowski prison in Shirley just three weeks ago.
The inmate suicide rate in Massachusetts was 27 percent per 100,000 inmates during the past ten years, nearly twice the national rate of 14 per 100,000 during the same time period, according to the report.
Other recommendations in the report include: more ”out of cell” time for inmates; 15 minute security rounds on inpatient health services units; clinical judgment regarding placement and length of stay on suicide watch; and a ban on inmates on suicide watch from covering their heads with bedding.
”Confining a suicidal inmate to their cell for 24 hours a day only enhances isolation and is anti-therapeutic,” wrote Hayes.
The report also recommend that all inmates discharged from suicide watch remain on mental health caseloads and receive regular follow-up visits and assessments.
The report, based on documents, prison visits, and interviews with staff over several months, includes details about two recent suicides when inmates were hanging for more than 30 minutes before they were discovered, even though prisoners on suicide watch are supposed to be checked at least every 30 minutes.
The report found that in two cases, inmates were taken from their cells before cardiopulmonary resuscitation was performed, and two cases in which nurses struggled to find equipment to attempt resuscitation.
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Massachusetts Department of Corrections, www.mass.gov/doc