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Self-Assessment for Identifying  After suffering humilia- Assess the Environment
Potential Challenges in Your tion (e.g., sexual assault) or  Review the monitoring logs
Facility rejection for acutely and non-acutely
 Pending release after a long suicidal inmates.
Review Policy and Procedures period of incarceration  Check to see if psychology
 Does your facility have a plan autopsies have been completed
and processes in place for  Does the procedure address within 30 days post suicide.
ensuring the safety of inmates staff responsibilities (e.g., who is  Can the officers assigned to
who are acutely or non- responsible for the watches and constant watch really see the
acutely suicidal? at what intervals)? inmate from the place where
 Does the procedure address  Is there a policy for how to docu- they sit?
monitoring during key high- ment suicide watches with an  Electronic monitoring is great,
risks events? example of how to complete the but supervision aids should
logs?
 Upon admission (e.g., only be used as a supplement
2 to 14 days following and not substitute for direct
incarceration) Talk with the Health Care Team staff monitoring.
 Pull the suicide logs at your facil-
 Following new legal prob- ity and ask the team to describe
lems (e.g., within 48 hours proper and safe suicide watches. Share Your Thoughts with
of a court appearance, new Does this match your policy? Health Care Leaders
charges, additional sen- When staff understand that
tences, institutional pro-  Ask staff to show you where training can enable them to save
ceedings, denial of parole) they document. Is it accurate and lives, they are more likely to
complete according to the policy?
 After admittance to seg- master the content and neces-
regation or single-cell  Ask the team if they have been sary skills. This is an excellent
housing trained on how to conduct opportunity to share experiences,
constant observation for acutely
 After the receipt of bad suicidal inmates. Ask how breaks training, and planning with cor-
news regarding self or fam- are handled. rections staff and correctional
ily (e.g., serious illness, the health care staff alike. Invest in
loss of a loved one)  Ask the team how to conduct the your staff, invest in your facility,
staggered time for non-acutely invest in the lives with whom
suicidal inmates. Verify against you are entrusted.
the log. Do they know to stagger For a copy of the Suicide
times, keep check unpredictable Prevention Resource Guide, contact
and vary intervals no more than info@ncchc.org.
15 minutes apart?
 Discuss the procedures for © 2018 National Commission on
documenting the identification Correctional Health Care. ncchc.org
and monitoring of potential or
attempted suicides.
 What are the procedures for
reporting a completed suicide?

58 | MAY | JUNE 2021 AMERICANJails