NCJ Number
179777
Journal
Corrections Technology and Management Volume: 3 Issue: 5 Dated: September-October 1999 Pages: 32-35
Date Published
1999
Length
4 pages
Annotation
The experience of the Hawaii Department of Public Safety in evaluating its prison facilities and corrections policies relative to inmate suicide and taking actions to address the issue suggests that evaluation, surveillance, and intervention action plans can help prevent inmate suicide.
Abstract
Four inmate suicides in quick succession led the agency to ask Lindsay Hayes, Assistant Director of the National Center on Institutions and Alternatives, to help develop a program to improve staff training and facilities to reduce inmate suicides. Hayes suggested an interdisciplinary study of each incident and a mortality review of every completed suicide and serious attempts requiring hospitalization. Other recommendations focused on electronic surveillance; targeting training on correctional officers, because most suicides occur in evenings and on weekends when mental health and medical staff are often not readily available; staggered observation periods; and specific intervention steps when a suicide attempt is discovered. Actions planned or taken to implement the recommendations included the replacement of selected cell doors to expand the observation windows, a plan for immediate transfers to larger institutions of inmates requiring mental health observations, replacement of ventilator mesh in cells intended for inmates who were high suicide risks, and development of a training curriculum based on the five-step program used by the Federal prisons. Hawaii also plans to build an additional prison to stop the current overcrowding problems. Photographs