Suicides in Texas prisons hit a 10-year high of 40 in 2018—and the steady rise in suicide attempts in these state-run facilities has alarmed prisoner rights advocates.
FILE - In this June 26, 2013, file photo, the Huntsville "Walls" Unit of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice Huntsville Unit, where the death chamber is located, is shown in Huntsville, Texas. Since 2011, the rate of attempted suicide in the prisons of Texas, one of America's most heavily incarcerated states, has steadily risen, records show. The rate of actual suicides has been more sporadic, although it was higher on average in the last five years than the five before that.
"The big-picture problem is there are not enough in-patient beds to accommodate all the people" in the system who have severe mental illness, Medlock said. The Department of Criminal Justice likely "overcounts" suicide attempts as it focuses on preventing actual suicides, said spokesman Jeremy Desel, who declined to comment on the lawsuit filed by Letcher's mother.
"Prisons and jails have become the de facto mental health institutions in our country, and their mission is not to address mental health issues. Their mission is to keep people locked up," said Dr. Josiah Rich, a professor of medicine at Brown University and director of The Center for Prisoner Health and Human Rights, both in Providence, Rhode Island.
"Prison systems are overwhelmed with the numbers of people with serious mental illness that they need to respond to," said Ronald Honberg, a senior policy adviser with the National Alliance on Mental Illness. "Oftentimes the staff don't have the training to really respond, and oftentimes the response is punitive."
Republican state Rep. James White, chair of the House corrections committee, said Texas prisons changing what they define as a suicide attempt is in reaction to legislative action. As a result, he said, the Department of Criminal Justice is producing "more robust and transparent reporting" on suicide attempts.
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