At the 680-bed Erie County Holding Facility, a small jail on the shores of Lake Erie in Buffalo, N.Y., six inmates have committed suicide in the past five years, as many as at Rikers Island, the sprawling New York City jail that typically houses about 14,000 inmates.
In 2007, an Erie inmate killed himself by diving off a 15-foot railing in full view of sheriff's deputies. That same year, an inmate took his life after officials removed him from 24-hour suicide watch and put him with the other inmates. In 2008, two detainees used bed sheets to hang themselves from air vents, raising to 15 the number of inmates who had committed suicide this way, or tried to, since 2002.
County jails, most of them originally designed to hold low-level offenders, now serve, to some degree, as de facto psychiatric wards. Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca famously referred to the jails he oversees as “the largest mental health institution in the country.”
6 comments:
WCDC and Somerset are no better. Both have had this same kind of stuff in the past. The wardens really don't care, the budgets are tight and if an inmate commits suicide they have one less mouth to feed. Even the ACLU doesn't care, they are more interested in Somersets employment and census numbers than they are inmate wellbeing.
This world aint never gonna be right for some people.
and this is a problem why?
I say they have it made ! Make it worse !
anon 11:11 see they are good for society after all..way to show some commitment!
I agree with 2:46!
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