In Arapahoe County, there is plexiglass paneling on bunk beds. Jefferson County’s strategy involves flexible pens. And in Denver, it is tear-resistant sheets and blankets.
Across the state, jails and prisons are employing an array of strategies to push back against rising inmate deaths and suicide attempts, a problem complicated by the state’s burgeoning mental health and opioid abuse crises.
“We certainly aren’t naive enough to think this is a suicide-proofing program,” said Vince Line, detention services bureau chief for Arapahoe County. “Inmates are creative, and if they’re intent on self-harm, they will find a method to accomplish that.”
This year has seen a string of inmate suicides in Colorado, from a man found last month in a Douglas County cell hung by a sheet from his bed, a self-strangulation death in Mesa County a week later and two strangulation suicides in Jefferson County, one in September and one in June.
In a report on jailhouse deaths published in The Denver Post in January, it was found that the number of people who died in Colorado’s jails more than doubled in four years, following a national trend of a rising death toll among inmates in city and county jails across the country.
From Jan. 1, 2010, to July 8, 2016, The Post found that 117 people died in Colorado jails and that 48 of those deaths — or 41 percent — were suicides.
Arapahoe County’s approach to the problem is one of the more novel in the state. Officials last month bought more than $30,000 in polycarbonate sheeting for the detention center in Centennial.
Secured flat against the end of a jailhouse bunk bed, the plastic panels cover and block potential tie-off points on the bed frame or post where inmates might attempt self-strangulation with a sheet or a piece of clothing.
Three inmates in Arapahoe have taken their own lives in the past five years, Line said. And attempted suicides have been on an upward trend during the same period at the 1,458-bed facility, with 13 recorded last year vs. five in 2012.
So far this year, attempted suicides among inmates is tracking to exceed 2016’s total.
“It is getting worse,” Line said.
Which is why the county has embarked on a $200,000 suicide mitigation effort that aims to eliminate from the facility opportunities for self-harm. Because 83 percent of suicide attempts in the Arapahoe County Jail in the last five years have been via hanging, Line said efforts are focused there.
Aside from attaching nearly 900 panels of polycarbonate sheeting to jailhouse beds, jail officials have installed air vents with smaller grates, removed shelves and towel racks in cells, replaced bunk ladders with stairs, and installed fire sprinkler heads that are harder to tie to.
A maintenance worker recently showed a reporter strips of steel that had been welded into the gap between jail bed frames and cell walls — yet another possible makeshift fulcrum through which inmates could feed a bedsheet turned ligature.
“It puts us in a better position to protect the safety of those who are entrusted to our care — especially those intent on self-harm,” Line said.
The legislature passed a bill this year that makes it illegal to put people behind bars when they are picked up for mental health concerns. The law, Senate Bill 207, also bans the use of jails to house people who are a “danger to themselves or others” but have not committed any crime.
But trying to decipher who is suicidal — or may become suicidal behind bars — is no easy feat.
Chris Johnson, executive director of the County Sheriffs of Colorado and a former Otero County sheriff himself, praised Arapahoe County’s approach to suicide mitigation but said it will largely be a game of catch-up as long as mental health issues continue to proliferate among the jail population.
“There’s been a failure to provide adequate care for the mentally ill who were released out on the street,” Johnson said. “Substance abuse and mental illness go hand in hand.”
It’s a problem jails across the state have been wrestling with for years.
Denver provides special, tear-resistant sheets and blankets to inmates. At the state level, Department of Corrections spokesman Mark Fairbairn said his department has “taken several measures to limit ligature points in cells,” though he didn’t elaborate on what those were.
Jefferson County not only incorporates physical measures in its jail — breakaway hooks and shower curtains, “flexible pens” rather than pencils to reduce puncture opportunities and shortened phone and TV cords in common areas — it emphasizes a holistic approach to suicide reduction.
Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office spokeswoman Jenny Fulton said during the booking process, deputies are asked to study an inmate’s behavior for suicidal tendencies. The inmate also meets with a counselor and medical nurse to determine the potential for self-harm.
Red-flagged inmates are housed with a cellmate and are seen by a counselor monthly.
Mark Pogrebin, a professor at the University of Colorado at Denver’s School of Public Affairs who specializes in criminology and penology, said a comprehensive approach to suicide prevention is critical. That means keeping a steady eye on policies, procedures and, most important, staff training to recognize signs of potential self-harm.
“It’s OK to do physical prevention, but I want to know, how are staff being trained?” he said. “There are all kinds of things the jail personnel have to know about the inmates. If you misclassify someone, you’re going to have problems.”
Line said Arapahoe County takes a comprehensive approach to suicide prevention, with jailhouse psychiatrists and mental health experts putting in more hours working with troubled inmates. He also is working on getting his entire staff crisis-intervention training.
“You can’t discuss the mitigation program without talking about mental health,” he said.
