Women locked up in Texas: predicting suicide risk by custody type and nature of offense

The present study aims to identify vulnerable stages of increased suicide risk for females in custody by examining recency of custody by number of days, custody type (pre-booking, jails, prisons) and to determine if there are differences in risk between violent and non-violent offenders. We predicted that violent offenders would be most likely to die by suicide while in custody. Secondarily, we predicted that pre-booking and jail stages would be the most high-risk custody points for those in custody. Our hypotheses were supported and additionally we found that young, white, and violent female offenders were at the greatest risk for suicide and that pre-booking stage and jail were indeed the most vulnerable stages for suicide while in custody