A first of its kind program at the Bexar County Jail is taking aim at inmate suicides, News Radio 1200 WOAI reports.
Sheriff Javier Salazar says last year, five inmates killed themselves while in county custody, the highest number on record in the county's long history.
"This year, unfortunately, we have had two," Salazar said. "Unfortunately, as far as I'm concerned, as far as my command staff is concerned, that is two too many."
Salazar today announced the creation of a Jail Mental Health Unit, which will focus on prisoners showing signs that they might commit suicide and get them the help that they need.
The problem of suicides in Texas county jails was brought into focus two years ago, when Chicago Prairie View A&M administrator Sandra Bland killed herself in a Houston area jail, after a violent altercation with a state trooper, who was later fired.
The Texas Legislature in 2017 passed the Sandra Bland Act, requiring county jails to have mental health professionals available, and requiring that jails do a suicide assessment on the intake of a new inmate.
Several factors have been blamed for the statewide rash of suicides among inmates in Texas county jails.
They include the fact that, in some cases, as many as two thirds of all inmates of county jails have never been convicted of any crime, they are simply awaiting trial and can't afford bail.
Another factor is that jails, which were built to house inmates for no more than one year on misdemeanor convictions, are at time being asked to house inmates for two years and more, as appeals are heard and cases are delayed.
There is also the overcrowding which is a constant problem in Bexar County and in other urban jails, driven largely by the county's spike in violent crime.