California Prisons Fail To Follow Suicide Prevention Guidelines
A report by the state auditor -- and requested by legislators -- found that of 40 prisoners who committed or attempted suicide, 36 required suicide-risk evaluations, but mental health staff failed to complete an evaluation or did an inadequate one.
Los Angeles Times:
State Audit Finds Corrections Officials Are Failing To Ensure Prisons Evaluate And Monitor Inmates At Risk For Suicide
California corrections officials have failed to ensure prison staff members properly evaluate, treat and monitor inmates at risk of taking their own lives, according to a scathing state audit released Thursday. The California State Auditor report, requested by a joint legislative audit committee, found state prisons failed to follow their own suicide prevention and response policies, while their average suicide rate was substantially higher than the average of U.S. state prisons — 22 per 100,000 inmates versus 15.66 per 100,000 inmates. (Ulloa, 8/17)
Sacramento Bee:
Suicide Spike Followed Merger Of CA Women's Prisons
California’s corrections department’s failure to prepare when it moved hundreds of high-security female inmates from a Central Valley prison to one in inland Southern California may have contributed to a recent spike in suicide attempts by women prisoners, according to a new state audit. Between 2013 and 2016, women made up 4 percent of the state’s prison population but accounted for 11 percent of the system’s suicides, according to the audit. (Ashton, 8/17)
And in national news about suicide —
The New York Times:
Guns Play Oversize Role In Rural Suicides
Suicide rates are higher in rural counties, according to a new study, and the reason is firearm use by men. The report, in the American Journal of Public Health, used data on 6,196 suicides of Maryland residents over age 15. They found that the rate of firearm suicides was 66 percent higher in the most thinly populated counties than in metropolitan areas with populations greater than a million. Non-firearm suicide rates in rural and urban counties were roughly the same. (Bakalar, 8/17)
The New York Times:
Preventing Teen Suicide: What The Evidence Shows
There are evidence-based ways to prevent suicide. The World Health Organization has a guide for how media professionals should talk about the subject. They should avoid sensationalizing it or normalizing it. They should be careful not to repeat accounts of suicide or to provide explicit descriptions as to how suicide might be attempted or completed. They should word headlines carefully, and avoid video or photos of suicides or the victims. (Carroll, 8/17)
KPCC also reports on a government analysis of violence involving police —
KPCC:
Police Use Force Against Blacks In California At Higher Rate, New Data Shows
Police in California shot at or used force against black people last year at triple the rate relative to their portion of the population, according to a first ever report on use of force released Thursday afternoon by the state Department of Justice. The statistics begin to fill in the information void that has enveloped police uses of force in California and the rest of the nation, where it is often difficult to garner basic facts. (Gilbertson and Mendelson, 8/17)