What are the Main causes and What Can Families Do?

Few phone calls are more devastating than learning that a loved one has passed while incarcerated. For many families, the most shocking factor is from the belief that their loved one was supposed to be in a place where they are protected and safe. Incarceration limits a person’s freedom, but it does not strip away their right to reasonable medical care, mental health treatment, and protection from foreseeable harm, especially harm to oneself.

Suicide is one of the leading causes of death in correctional facilities across the United States. Incarceration can be an incredibly stressful experience, but many deaths are preventable when correctional facilities follow their appropriate policies, provide adequate supervision, and respond accordingly to mental health concerns. When they fail to do so, many lives are at risk.

Why Is Suicide a Risk in Correctional Facilities?

Being incarcerated is one of the most significant and stressful life changes a person can experience. Incarcerated individuals are removed from your home and family, with seemly no control over your own life. People going through this may experience different emotions like fear, shame, uncertainty about the future, and what charges may await them. For some, incarceration may also worsen existing mental health conditions or substance withdrawal symptoms, without much insight on how to help these issues. While these risk factors alone do not mean someone will attempt suicide, they highlight why correctional facilities must remain attentive to their inmates. Jails and prisons are expected to identify and protect individuals who may be at risk to themselves and provide appropriate care to them.

The Duty to Protect People in Custody

When someone is incarcerated, they lose their ability to make many decisions that we take for granted. These things include where they live, when they eat, and how they receive medical care. Since correctional facilities hold this level of control over their inmates, they also assume important legal responsibilities.

Those responsibilities generally include:

• Mental health screenings
• Identifying self-harm risks
• Providing psychological and medical care
• Following policies to protect inmates
• Responding to emergencies speedily
• Maintaining safe living conditions
• Involving relevant staff in inmate care

When negligence becomes a factor

Not every death in these facilities results from negligence. However, there are situations where warning signs were present, policies were ignored, or appropriate care was not provided.

Examples of potential negligence may include:

• Ignoring risk factors
• Failing mental health check-in duties
• Impeding in inmates’ mental health treatment
• Failing duties while inmate is on Suicide Watch
• Failing to address self-harm inducing materials
• Lack of communication between relevant staff on inmate health
• Deficient staffing and/or supervision standards
• Failure to enact suicide prevention policies when needed

Our client’s story

Bellwoar Kelly represented the family of a young man who died while incarcerated at Northampton County Prison. Our client’s son died after prison personnel failed their duty to monitor him while incarcerated and provide appropriate care and medical supervision when there should have been. His mother received the unimaginable news that her son had passed away while in custody of those responsible for protecting him.

No lawsuit can replace a child. No settlement or verdict can erase the grief experienced by a parent who expected their loved one to return home and into their lives. However, pursuing legal action can help uncover what happened, hold responsible parties accountable, and encourage improvements that may protect others in the future from ever experiencing the unexpected loss of a loved one. If it wasn’t for this negligence, her son would still be alive today.

Why accountability matters

Some people wonder whether filing a lawsuit change anything after such a devastating loss. The reality is that accountability serves MULTIPLE important purposes.

First, it helps families obtain information about what ACTUALLY occurred. Internal investigations may not answer every question, but legal discovery can reveal records, policies, communications, and testimony that would otherwise remain unavailable. Suicide is not a choice in prison, but a reflection of guard.

Second, lawsuits encourage correctional facilities to examine and/or change their practices. Litigation may expose problems involving staffing, training, communication, or medical care that require meaningful improvements. Which is why it is very important to emphasize.

Third, accountability can help prevent similar tragedies. Better training, stronger policies, and improved suicide prevention efforts may ultimately save lives. Justice cannot erase grief, but it can promote change.

Who may be responsible?

Suicide in correctional facilities does not fall on the person who commits it, but rather the people who failed to carry out their duty of protection and care. Every situation is different. Meaning, multiple individuals or parties may share responsibility for a preventable death in custody.

Potentially responsible parties may include:

• Prison Staff
• Correctional supervisors
• Medical Professionals
• Private Health professionals
• Prison Administration
• State/counties in charge of Prison Funding
• Counselors

Every case is different, and determining who can be held accountable requires a careful review of all different aspects of evidence. Do not ever let anyone undermine the loss of your loved one in prison, because this is something that should never occur in the first place. Suicide in correctional facilities is not the victim’s fault.

What should families do after a death in custody?

Families often feel overwhelmed in the days, weeks, and even months following a loss. While every situation does differ as stated earlier, several steps may help preserve important information to acquire the answers you deserve.

These include:

• Requesting available records from the correctional facility
• Save any forms of communication with prison officials
• Obtaining the death certificate and autopsy report when available
• Speaking with experienced attorneys in cases involving prison suicide

Bellwoar Kelly is here to help

At Bellwoar Kelly, LLP, we understand that no legal case can undo the pain of losing someone you love. We also understand that families deserve honest answers and accountability when correctional facilities fail to uphold the basic responsibilities they were trained to carry out.

If you believe your loved one’s death may have resulted from negligence while in custody, you do not have to navigate the process alone. Our team has experience investigating complex cases involving correctional facilities, medical providers, and institutional negligence.

Every person deserves dignity, appropriate medical care, and protection while in custody. When those obligations are ignored, families have the right to seek justice and representation. Call us 610-314-7066 or email us at https://www.bellwoarkelly.com/west-chester/