DOJ Directs BOP, U.S. Marshals to Improve Suicide Prevention
On December 3, 2024, U.S. Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco issued a directive updating suicide prevention protocols and improving mental health assessments for federal prisoners and detainees. The reforms apply to the federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) and the U.S. Marshals Service (USMS), and they are part of a larger attempt to redress chronic shortcomings recently highlighted by the Office of the Inspector General (OIG) of the federal Department of Justice (DOJ), parent agency of both BOP and USMS.
As PLN reported, OIG slammed BOP in that February 2024 report for averaging 43 deaths per year—including at least 23 suicides. Among the “recurring policy violations and operational failures” blamed for these deaths were skipped guard checks, incomplete suicide assessments and assignments of prisoners and detainees to inappropriate mental healthcare levels. [See: PLN, Sep. 2024, p.39.]
Keeping accurate medical and mental health histories, according to the report, is “critical to suicide prevention and risk monitoring, yet remains one of the biggest challenges for USMS and [BOP].” To this end, USMS was directed to establish “detention management committees,” and both agencies were exhorted to “improve coordination and information sharing.”
The report also called for “improving access and delivery of suicide prevention-related care,” with “detention management inspectors” added to USMS staff. It urged the BOP to update its policy “to better assess and evaluate the mental health needs” of prisoners. And the BOP was also ordered to “expand the use of peer-based mental health intervention programs,” including a “task force” to improve resources and training for “peer supporters in custody.”
The BOP was instructed to “expand wellness checks” after a fatal suicide or other “event with a high risk of lethality,” including self-harm or drug overdose. To reduce both the opportunity for such events and their seriousness, both agencies were commended for new suicide prevention policies; however, “policy compliance remains a challenge,” the report noted, “especially as recruitment and retention issues have placed additional demands on employees.” See: Report on Actions to Reduce the Risk of Suicide by Adults in Federal Custody and Advance a Culture of Safety, DOJ/OIG (Dec. 2024).
Additional source: AP News
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