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| Iowa, Ohio prisons see inmate suicide spike |
| By USA TODAY |
| Published: 12/13/2004 |
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State prison officials in Iowa and Ohio are scrutinizing their suicide-prevention policies following the deaths of several inmates who took their own lives in recent months. In Iowa, a 24-year-old man was found dead inside his cell at the state penitentiary Nov. 1, the fifth prisoner to kill himself since January 2003. And in Ohio, nine prisoners have committed suicide this year. That is more than double the number of suicides last year, and one fewer than a record number in 1999, prompting the state corrections director to create special teams to examine suicide-prevention policies at each of the state's 32 prisons, says Brian Niceswanger, spokesperson for Ohio's Department of Rehabilitation and Correction. One of the more recent deaths occurred Aug. 30, when a 20-year-old man hanged himself in his cell at the Dayton Correctional Institution. Despite occasional spikes in individual prison systems, the suicide rate in state and federal prisons, as well as local jails, has declined over the past two decades, according to the Federal Bureau of Prisons and the Bureau of Justice Statistics. But suicide is the No. 1 cause of death in most local jails and remains the third-leading cause in state and federal prisons, behind natural causes and AIDS, making suicide a continuing concern for corrections officials. |
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