Death Behind Bars

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Abstract
HUNDREDS of suicides occur each year in small local jails. Nevertheless, the problem is relatively neglected by public officials. While deaths of inmates in federal or state prisons are the subject of analysis, to our knowledge there is no accurate evaluation of most deaths occurring in jails. In an effort to document the severity of the problem, the deaths of 25 prisoners in local Wayne County, Michigan, jails in 1976 and 1977 were studied. Wayne County's inmate population is distributed between the Wayne County jail, with a daily average of 941 prisoners, and 40 local lockups, each containing two to ten cells. These findings were reported in a survey of detention facilities in Wayne County by the Michigan Department of Corrections, Office of Jail Services, on March 24, 1976, and in the Wayne County jail report in 1977. The occurrence of 25 deaths in this population during the study can

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