NCJ Number
163767
Journal
Practicing Anthropology Volume: 14 Issue: 3 Dated: (Summer 1992) Pages: 9- 11
Date Published
1992
Length
3 pages
Annotation
The accumulated experience of jail personnel and an analysis of the autopsy findings from 32 jail suicides in New Mexico from 1975 through 1984 were used to develop a suicide prevention training program for correctional personnel in the State.
Abstract
Discussions with jail personnel revealed that many felt helpless to prevent a suicide. Many older jails have dark nooks and crannies where a prisoner can hid to organize the suicide. Many staff believed that inmates had to hang from a high place or jump off a top bunk to commit suicide. They often had their own mistaken ideas about which inmates were truly suicidal and which were only manipulative. However, the autopsy results revealed that inmates can die by hanging without complete obstruction of the airway and without the feet being off the floor. Brain death from hanging occurs much more quickly than the 15-minute interval used for checking on suicide-watch inmates. Half of the New Mexico suicides had alcohol in their body; all of these had killed themselves within 12 hours of arrest. Native American Indians were at extremely high risk; whites committed suicide in jail less often than Hispanics. In addition, some suicidal inmates considered joking comments by staff as permission by an authority to hang themselves. The author is the New Mexico Jail Suicide Prevention Coordinator. Photograph