Title: Prisoner suicide - Wikipedia
Headings: Prisoner suicide
Prisoner suicide
Contents
Risk factors
Incidence
Liability
See also
References

Content: There has to have been a strong likelihood rather than a mere possibility that a suicide would occur. Courts have also found that there is no duty to screen every prisoner for suicide potential, unless it is obvious that an inmate has such tendencies or propensities. Further, even if prison officials are aware of the inmate's suicidal tendencies and he does commit suicide, they are not liable if they took reasonable actions to prevent the suicide. In determining deliberate indifference, the practical limitations on jailers in preventing inmate suicides must be taken into account. Examples of failures that can give rise to claims related to suicide in correctional settings include inadequate mental health and psychiatric examination, failure to consider obvious and substantial risk factors in assessing potential for suicide, failure to place an inmate on suicide precautions upon recognizing the obvious and substantial risk, failure to communicate the action taken to other providers or to custody and jail staff, failure to adequately monitor an inmate on suicide watch and maintain an appropriate observation log, discontinuation of suicide watch despite prior knowledge of suicidal behavior of the inmate and potential continued risk, failure to follow policies and procedures related to suicide risk assessment, intervention, and prevention, failure to provide training to correctional staff, abrupt discontinuation of psychotropics in an inmate who is known to have made a serious suicide attempt in the recent past, and grossly inadequate treatment by professional standards or the lack of treatment plans, policies, procedures, or staff, creating a grossly inadequate mental health care system, and repeated examples of delayed or denied medical treatment. One criticism of the current case law is that prison officials are incentivized to avoid screening inmates for suicidal tendencies, because if the screening is ineffective, or the jail fails to deter the suicidal attempt of a prisoner it knows is suicidal, the governmental entity and the jailer may be at greater risk of being held liable than if they had conducted no screening. Nonetheless, some jails screen anyway, since jail suicides are difficult on staff and on the municipality and often lead to legal action, and because some states mandate screening procedures and impose tort liability for failure to follow them. Elected officials may face political ramifications if they become the scapegoat for a prisoner suicide. Another factor that has led to more screening of inmates for suicide is that research has shown that suicide tends to be the result of a plan rather than impulsive, which makes the suicide potentially more foreseeable if proper screening is done. See also
Death in custody
Death row phenomenon
Estelle v. Gamble
Guantanamo Bay detention camp suicide attempts
List of prison deaths
Philip Markoff
Jeffrey Epstein
References
^ CORREIA, KEVIN M. Suicide Assessment in a Prison Environment A Proposed Protocol.