When I worked as a jail nurse, anyone who mentioned thoughts of hurting themselves were stripped down and given a see-thru paper gown to wear. Then they were locked inside a tiny concrete cell with bulletproof glass windows so that anyone walking by could see them. These suicide watches took place in the booking area where every inmate is taken after their arrest. I’m not sure if the people on suicide watch were supposed to be a deterrent or not, but I’m pretty sure that the smarter inmates quickly understood that “crying for help” would only make things worse. It’s funny because I never really thought about just how inhuman it was to lock an emotionally unstable person up half naked and humiliated. It’s funny how sometimes we block things out or justify them so we can make money. Two people died while I was working at that jail. One of those deaths could have been prevented if the doctor had given a fuck. When we called to report the inmates symptoms, the doctor’s words were, “So what do you want me to do about it!?” In the end, we were ordered to give a dying man 2 ibuprofins. He was a corpse the next night. He died slowly poisoned by his own shit. I was fired a couple of months later for reasons that are still unclear to me and as far as I know that doctor still works there to this day. I can only assume I was fired because I told the jail’s lawyer the truth about what happened, but I can’t prove it. That’s why I haven’t taken any legal action.
Taken from /r/sanctionedsuicide