By Alexander Smith
NBC contributor
Suicides made up 5.5 percent of deaths in state and federal prisons in 2011, which was more than drug and alcohol intoxication, homicide and accident combined.
According to the Bureau of Justice Statistics, 185 inmates took their own lives in state and federal prisons that year.
Kidnapper and rapist Ariel Castro, who was found hanging in his cell late Tuesday, was being kept in protective custody, with guards making rounds every 30 minutes at staggered intervals, prison officials said. It was unclear early Wednesday whether he was on suicide watch.
Dr. Alexandra Fleischmann, an expert in suicide prevention at the World Health Organization’s Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse, said it was vital that a number of “risk factors” are assessed as soon as possible after person enters a prison or jail.
"[Suicide] is difficult to predict so the only way to intervene is to address as many risk factors as possible,” she said. “These factors are typically mental distress, chronic illness, acute emotional distress or the loss of a loved one.”
Authorities found a suicide note at Castro’s home along with a written confession when they searched the property in May, Cuyahoga County prosecutor Tim McGinty said after his sentencing.
Castro’s attorney Craig Weintraub told NBC’s TODAY on Wednesday that his client had been transferred to the Correctional Reception Center in Orient, Ohio, about two weeks ago. Castro was only a month into a life plus 1,000 years sentence.
Full story: Suicides kill more inmates than homicide, overdoses, accidents combined