After one other suspected jail suicide, corrections secretary acknowledges drawback

AGAIN: The loss of life was the seventh suspected suicide in Arkansas prisons this yr.

A prisoner on the East Arkansas Regional Unit in Lee County died Tuesday after he was discovered hanging in a cell in a suspected suicide, in keeping with a press launch from the Arkansas Division of Corrections.

The loss of life is the seventh suspected suicide in Arkansas prisons to this point this yr, lower than six months into 2024. The state jail system had eight suicides in all of 2023.

A Division of Corrections report on suicides in Arkansas prisons was offered to the state Board of Corrections this month and was extremely crucial of the prison system’s mental health care services.

Secretary of Corrections Lindsay Wallace provided this assertion on the rise in suicides via a spokesperson:

In-custody suicides are on the rise throughout the nation, together with in Arkansas. We wish to reverse that pattern. To try this, we have to be deliberate in how we deal with the psychological well being wants of our inmate inhabitants. Dr. (Tabrina) Bratton’s suicide research bolstered that the companies we offer want enchancment. We’re analyzing insurance policies,  procedures and coaching for our employees to deal with the deficiencies famous. That is and can proceed to be an ongoing evaluation.

Yesterday at 8:56 a.m., Roy Stewart, 39, was discovered hanging from his cell door by an article of clothes. Stewart, who was alone in his cell, was discovered by a correctional corporal making safety rounds and had final been seen by safety employees 18 minutes earlier, in keeping with the division.

Employees carried out life-saving efforts within the cell and within the unit’s infirmary earlier than Stewart was pronounced useless at 9:40 a.m. 

Stewart was serving a 30-year sentence for 19 convictions out of Sebastian County. The convictions included aggravated assault, battery, firearms possession, possession of methamphetamine and extra.

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