Suicide watch

Suicide watch is an intensive monitoring process used to ensure that an individual does not commit suicide. Usually the term is used in reference to inmates in a prison, hospital, psychiatric hospital, or military bases. Individuals are placed on suicide watch when it is believed there is a good chance they will attempt to harm themselves.

Various forms of suicide watch exist. These include periodic suicide watch (known as many facilities simply as "suicide observation" or "suicide watch"), in which the subject is monitored through frequent periodic checks, or "intense" suicide watch or observation, in which the subject is observed continually by a person who may be employed in one of several possible capacities sitting or standing in direct site or arm's reach of the subject. In some places, video suicide watches are performed, in which the subject receives video monitoring via closed circuit television from a remote area of the facility.

Conditions of Suicide Watch

People under suicide watch are put into an environment where it would be difficult for them to hurt themselves. They may be placed in a special padded cell and be stripped of anything with which they might hurt themselves (including shoelaces and belts, clothing, and sometimes even bed sheets). They may be under continuous or very frequent watch of a guard (a prison officer or orderly) who will intervene if they attempt to harm themselves.

Controversies

Suicide watch regimes, particularly in prisons, have been criticized for being too restrictive and dismissive of privacy. Inmates are routinely placed naked in suicide cells, which are usually bare concrete, often without bedding and under frequent or continuous observation by guards. Unsanitary conditions are also common since toilet paper, underwear and tampons are restricted; a few cells even lack toilet facilities, forcing inmates to defecate and urinate on the floor, which coupled with being under observation which can aggravate mental distress. These harsh conditions came to light in 1998 when an inmate of Framingham prison in Massachusetts, Elizabeth B., called a radio talk show to describe how she had been treated while on suicide watch:

I was...put on eyeball status, stripped of belongings, clothing, placed naked in a room with nothing but a plastic mattress on the floor. Watched 24 hours a day by a man or woman. I was on my period but because of my status not allowed to have tampons or underwear. There wasn't even a toilet so I had to go on the floor with an officer sitting there watching the whole time. I was very humiliated, degraded. Being on eyeball status with male officers, my depression intensified. I didn't want to be violated any more than I already was, so I put the mattress up against the window. When I did that I was in violation because they couldn't see me. The door was forced open, I was physically restrained in four point restraints - arms, legs spreadeagled, tied to the floor, naked, helmet on head, men and women in the room ["Here and Now" program, station WBUR, Boston University, 16 October 1998.] .

[http://www.amnesty.org/en/library/asset/AMR51/001/1999/en/dom-AMR510011999en.html] "1999 Amnesty International Report on Prison Conditions"

ee also

5150 (Involuntary psychiatric hold)