Some People Can't Handle The Idea Of Prison, Let Alone Trying To LIVE There...
Everyone knows that there are a lot of suicides and suicide attempts in prison. Sometimes it is because the inmate is being punked (abused physically, mentally, and/or sexually) and can no longer take it. Sometimes it is because they are severely depressed. Sometimes it is because of the loss of a loved one while they were helpless to do anything because they were in prison. I have seen a few people who have attempted (and one that succeeded) to take their own life using a belt. In the facility I worked at, the only way to hang yourself in your cell is to tie the strangulation device to the top bunk and sit down off the bottom bunk hoping that your weight is enough to do the job. Your feet will still be on the floor so it is a very brutal way to off yourself since you have the option at any time (until you pass out) to stand up and release the pressure on your neck. A lot of these attempts are cries for help and they are saved in time. This is because everyone who has a belt has a cellmate and inmates don't want to be caught in the same room with a dead guy for fear of being blamed for the death.
The more effective methods of suicide in prison that I saw were drug overdose and the cutting/slitting of vital arteries.
The guy that died...
He had made his own hypodermic needle and took a massive overdose of black tar heroin. He did it after everyone was locked down and wasn't discovered until morning. He didn't have a cellie at the time and he covered himself up to look like he was sleeping in his bunk. The graveyard officers got into trouble because we are trained to recognize living, breathing flesh and they had done three counts with him already dead.
The two worst ones where the guy lived...
One night, during the graveyard shift, an inmate began hitting his speaker button like crazy. When the speaker call was answered, the inmate screamed that his cellie had slit his wrist and was bleeding out in the room. The officers responded and were able to save him but his cellie had nightmares for weeks and this is why. The inmate who tried to off himself was on the top bunk. This inmate was asleep. The only reason the suicidal inmate survived was because the inmate on the bottom bunk woke up covered in blood and freaked thinking it was his own. When he realized what was going on, he alerted the officers.
Different day, different unit, different inmate. I received a call for first responders to the unit next door. When I ran into the dayroom with my partner, one of my gloves ripped as I was putting it on. We were still unaware of what happened. All we knew is that there was an inmate at the slider door of the dayroom yelling out the room number and that he didn't do it. I took one step in the room and stopped my partner from entering. There was blood all over the walls and the desks and floor. In the middle of the room was an eighteen year old man standing there draining the blood from his wrists into the trash can and he said to me, "Please don't let me live. Just wait a little longer and tell my cellie I tried not to make a mess, but it squirted and it couldn't be helped." I told my partner to grab the inmates wrists and hold as tight as he could (I also explained my glove had ripped). I yelled to the other back-up officers that were arriving to grab as many clean rags from the distribution room as they could as well as lots of sterile gauze from the first aid kit from my unit and the unit we were in. I got new gloves on and I got the gauze to put on the kids' wrists. He had used the blade from a safety razor and had almost an inch into his wrists (he couldn't control his hands and fingers...they were limp). With the gauze in place I wrapped as many rags as I could around the areas and we then had to cary him from the second tier into the dayroom where the wheelchair was brought in. 4 officers had to run him to medical while the Sargent was calling medical on the phone to get an ambulance (they are the ones who have to authorize an ambulance) and at the same time I called over the radiio to get medical ready and they needed an ambulance as fast as possible if they wanted this kid to live. One officer is holding one hand, one officer is holding the other, one is running the wheelchair and I am calling out which doors needed opened and when by Master Control and West Control. When we got into the medical office, the nurse moved the gauze for only a second and said, "Holy shit!" put the gauze back and the ambulance was on it's way. The inmate and two armed officers went to the hospital and the kid lived. He had some very crazy scars left from the experiance and he told us that he had just been told that his last appeal had been denied and he was there for 10 years. He also mentioned he was being punked daily since he had arrived almost two years earlier.
