Department of Justice’s New Tactics Address In-Custody Suicides
By Fay Havey
WASHINGTON — Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco recently announced more than 50 innovative strategies the Department of Justice (DOJ) will utilize to reduce death by suicide of adults who are detained or incarcerated in the custody of the U.S. Marshals Service (USMS) or Federal Bureau of Prisons (FBOP).
While suicide rates in federal custody are generally lower than those at local jails and state prisons, the DOJ still aims to avoid preventable deaths and uphold its mission of protecting civil rights for those in custody.
“The Department of Justice is committed to protecting the health and safety of every individual in our custody,” said Monaco in a statement. “Today’s reforms — recommended by experts from across the Department’s litigation, law enforcement and policy operations — will reduce the risk of suicide among adults in federal facilities. Simply put, these measures can help us save lives.”
The 14-page “Report on Actions to Reduce the Risk of Suicide by Adults in Federal Custody and Advance a Culture of Safety” was released in December 2024 and outlines five recommended actions to improve suicide prevention policy:
- Focusing prevention efforts through enhanced information sharing
- Improving access and delivery of suicide prevention-related care
- Promoting a healthy culture in facilities for employees and adults in custody
- Reducing opportunity for and lethality of incidents of self-directed violence
- Using data and research to refine suicide-prevention policies.
The USMS operates at more than 400 locations and in fiscal year 2024 took custody of approximately 134,400 individuals. USMS works to identify detainees’ health and safety risks (including risk of self-directed violence) but often does not receive critical and relevant information from arresting agencies and has limited opportunity to engage in mental health-related questioning. In FY24, 11 people died by suicide while in USMS custody.
Meanwhile, FBOP is charged with ensuring that federal offenders serve their sentences in humane and secure environments across its 121 institutions. In FY24, FBOP facilities housed an average daily population of 156,844 AICs. However, the Bureau reports significant challenges addressing the mental health and suicide risks of adults in custody (AICs).
“Most notably, chronic staffing shortages strain FBOP’s ability to address the growing need for mental health and substance use services and programs,” the report states. “Static and dynamic risk factors amplify the risk of suicide for many AICs, increasing the difficulty of accurately screening and continually assessing the risk of self-directed violence in a custodial setting.”
In FY24, 22 AICs died by suicide while in FBOP custody; and from FY19 to FY23, the average suicide mortality rate of prisoners in FBOP custody was 14.47 per 100,000 individuals — similar to the rate of the overall population of the United States and below that in local jails and state prisons.
The report asserts that FBOP can reduce opportunities for — as well as the likely lethality of — suicide and other self-directed violence by decreasing single-cell assignments and limiting use of restrictive housing. Improvements to institutional culture related to wellness and to intervention protocols targeted at suicide prevention, combined with greater attention to employee training and mental health needs and increased compliance with relevant safety and reporting policies, are also likely to reduce the risk of suicide by AICs at FBOP facilities and after community reentry.
The report was developed collaboratively by experts from USMS, FBOP, Executive Office for U.S. Attorneys, Office of the Deputy Attorney General, Bureau of Justice Statistics, National Institute of Justice and Office of Legal Policy. The Office of Inspector General provided additional resources via results from a recent evaluation of inmate deaths at FBOP institutions where institutional safety and security were identified as key departmental challenges.
The Department of Justice also participated in listening sessions with researchers who focus on suicide prevention in custodial settings, government representatives on various levels from federal to local law enforcement, federal public defenders, national defense counsels as well as suicide-prevention and prison-reform organizations that advocate on behalf of people in custody.
“I’m grateful not only to our department experts, but also to the research, law enforcement, judicial, and suicide prevention organizations and advocates that contributed to this effort,” Monaco added.