By C1 Staff
AUSTIN – With a recent spike in inmate suicides, the Commission on Jail Standards is considering several measures to combat and end the issue, including a peer-to-peer system among inmates.
CBS News reports that with a tight budget that won’t allow the hiring of additional staff or installation of more cameras, the Commission is considering having inmates keep track of each other to ensure prisoner safety.
“I mean, possibly identifying inmates that are trustees; possibly provide them with a minimal amount of training and have them watch the other inmates,” Brandon Wood, Executive Director of the Texas Commission on Jail Standards, said. “They’re sitting in there already and most people do not want to see another individual take their life.”
Other recommendations include updating the intake screening form in order to better identify inmates with potential mental illnesses; the current form has not been updated since 2000. The revised form will remove any possibility of objectivity and will be more “user-friendly.”
Fiscal year 2015 saw 33 suicides in the Texas prison system, which is up from 22 last year.