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Why Jails Pose Such a High Suicide Risk (2015)

"We’ll never know exactly what happened to Sandra Bland, the 28-year-old black woman who police said was found hanged to death in her Texas jail cell last week following her arrest after a traffic stop. Even though the last two days’ worth of news - the official autopsy, the fact that Bland had told prison officials she had attempted suicide earlier this year, and a video in which she had recounted her struggles with depression and post-traumatic stress disorder - do point to suicide, there’s still a formal investigation to be done. And even if that investigation further confirms the official story, it won’t bring us any closer to knowing what was going on in her head when she decided to take her life."