D.C. Councilmember Tommy Wells (D-Ward 7) opened a hearing on Nov. 7 to investigate a report released by the Department of Corrections on in-custody deaths in the District’s Centeral Detentions Facility. Four inmates committed suicide over the past year and, in the past two years, 165 inmates have attempted suicide. This rate is three times the national average and, according to the report, results from the failure of health providers and officers in D.C. jails to properly assess and monitor inmates who present a high risk of suicidal behavior.
The report found the D.C. jail protocol to deal with suicidal inmates to be “good and comprehensive.” However, implementation of protocol is lacking: Correctional officers do not receive specialized training beyond an hour-long annual training and pay little attention to the mental health of inmates. Corrections officers have even falsified records regarding how often inmates who committed suicide were monitored in their cells, as The Washington Post reported.
Guards commonly remark that suicide attempts amount to nothing more than attention-seeking and, rather than placing high-risk prisoners under suicide watch, they place them under “behavioral observation,” in which inmates are stripped of their clothes, denied blankets and mattresses, and banned from contacting family members.
Additionally, the D.C. jail lacks proper facilities to accommodate the mental health needs of its inmate population. Even though 40 percent of the jail’s 1,400 inmates is at risk for suicide, the jail only has nine “suicide resistant” cells.
Wells’s hearing resulted in preventative measures such as the removal of items such as razor blades and pills from prison cells. Additionally, Mayor Vincent Gray has committed $600,000 to renovate the D.C. jail to make all of its cells “suicide resistant.” While these measures make suicide more difficult, they do not solve the problems caused by the complete lack of integration between the jail and mental health system.
Jails and prisons don’t only serve to punish offenders, but also to rehabilitate and reform them. The District Central Detention Facility needs to start caring for the mental health of its inmates, especially considering the high prevalence of mental disorders among inmate populations. “By default, we are the city’s largest mental health institution,” D.C. Corrections Director Thomas Faust told the Post. Only by educating corrections officers and forming partnerships with mental health professionals can the jail system step into the 21st century.