Prison is not only tough on a man physically, it also damages him emotionally and mentally. Being all packed in together the way we are, it’s hard to miss anything happening in your assigned living area, and in my time here, I’ve seen three men commit suicide. 

I once watched as a man leaned out his door and slit his wrists. He died before medical arrived. 

Another time, I was in a dayroom watching TV when a man jumped head first off three row. That’s about forty feet onto cement.  He survived the initial jump, but later died.  

The most haunting suicide was a hanging…  I’ve actually been near for two hangings, but in one I prevented a death, and in the other I was just a bystander.  In 2006 my celly hung himself on the Ellis unit.   I happened to arrive back at the cell while he was suffocating, lifted him up and called for help. He was hospitalized and then placed into mental health care.  I have to laugh when I write the word ‘care’ – that’s a misnomer for sure.    

The man that hung himself and died did so with a day room full of people.  He walked out of his cell on two row, walked onto three row, tied a sheet around the rail and climbed up to perch on it.   He was making demands.  There was something wrong at his family’s place, and he wanted access to a phone.  At that time, there were no phones in TDCJ.  They have since installed some phones for some of the inmates. The officer on the pod responded and tried to tell him that he would help. They argued, and the officer got angry before saying, “You aren’t going to jump anyway.”

…and the inmate jumped.  He dropped about fifteen feet and began choking.  The staff panicked and ran to three row to untie the sheet, which would have dropped him twenty-five more feet to the cement, but they couldn’t untie the knot.  His weight had tightened it. Inmates on two row were trying to hold the hanging inmate but they couldn’t.  He suffocated and died while hanging.  Officers cleared the living area.

My last look at the inmate was seeing him still hanging from the rail twenty minutes after he had jumped.  TDCJ sanitizes a scene like that by shipping most of the inmates off the unit immediately, a few here and a few there, so no reporters or investigators can chase down the facts.

I’ve seen two life ending heart attacks. I watched a man choke to death in the chow hall. I’ve been housed near, but not actually witnessed, several other suicides and attempts. I’ve seen so many stabbings I’ve lost count.  An inmate that gets stabbed finds himself in real trouble.  Medical care here is slow to respond and poorly trained. There are two doctors on staff that work 8 am to 4 pm, and the fact that these doctors are employed by the system allows them to be considered for medical licensing. All the rest of the medical staff are nurse’s or physician’s assistants.  They are able to take vitals and talk to you about chronic pain, but when a man has been stabbed fourteen times in the chest and stomach, they are ill trained to treat him.  These injuries tend to end in death. Usually, medical tries to stabilize the victim while an ambulance is called, and by the time it arrives the inmate is beyond care.  I’ve seen officers stabbed and inmates assaulted by officers. 

Simply put – violence is a way of life in here in the Texas Department of Criminal Justice.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Jeremy Robinson is author of The Monster Factory and is currently working on several projects. He can be contacted at:
Jeremy Robinson #1313930
Polunsky Unit
3872 South FM 350
Livingston, TX 77351