Title: Preventing Inmate Suicide: The Ultimate Patient Safety Measure
Headings: Preventing Inmate Suicide: The Ultimate Patient Safety Measure
Preventing Inmate Suicide: The Ultimate Patient Safety Measure
Start with Screening
Screening is Only the Beginning
Making the Most of a Bad Outcome

Content: If you work in a jail or prison, preventing suicide is a primary way to decrease patient injury and death. While suicide deaths in the US population are just under 13 for every 100,000 citizens, suicide deaths in jails in 2013 were an astounding 46 per 100,000 inmates. The suicide rate in US jails is over 3.5 times the rate among the general public. Lindsay Hayes MS, a Project Director with the National Center on Institutions & Alternatives in Mansfield, MA has followed jail suicide rates for over 35 years and he has seen significant progress in preventing suicides in our setting. He remembers at the start of his career that “the jail suicide rate was 107 suicides per 100,000 inmates or nine times greater than the general population. We have certainly come a long way since the 1980s, but have much more work to do.” He suggests the following interventions to keep your patients safe from harm by their own hand while in custody. Start with Screening
Intake is the place where it all starts. There should be an evaluation of suicide potential for each patient that enters the correctional system. Although there are no intake screening forms that have been validated within the correctional environment, there is general agreement among experts that an effective suicide screening includes these eight areas.