NCJ Number
131512
Date Published
1986
Length
42 pages
Annotation
Prepared for police, jail, and mental health professionals, this curriculum outlines detailed training activities designed to facilitate the detention and prevention of suicide in jails.
Abstract
A lesson plan specifies time and space requirements, the necessary instructor and trainee materials, the method of instruction, and participant objectives. The curriculum, which includes a profile of jail suicides based on the 1979 National Center on Institutions and Alternatives' survey report, covers the factors contributing to creating a jail environment conducive to suicide, predisposing factors, high risk suicide periods, signs and symptoms of potential suicide, assessment of suicide risk, handling potential suicides, the role of the correctional officer/jailer in suicide prevention, and the design of a "suicide-proof" architecture and environment. At the completion of the training session, participant accomplishments will include the ability to identify at least five key warning signs and symptoms of potential suicide as well as five methods for successful handling of potentially suicidal inmates.