It is a great accomplishment for the staff at the Clark County Jail to have prevented all suicide attempts in the jail this year. I appreciate The Columbian publicizing this.
The Dec. 10 story “Jail’s suicide prevention work pays off” and Dec. 11 editorial, “Progress on jail suicides: Sheriff’s office identifies problem, takes steps that make a positive difference,” noting this accomplishment tells of the training officers went through to help mentally ill inmates. While we are in a time of pinching every penny, it is sad that the mentally ill are not put in psychiatric institutions so that they can receive advanced help. Correction officers have a hard enough job taking care of criminals, that to ask them to have training and time to take care of the mentally ill seems to me to impose too high of a burden on them.
It is easy to have an “out of sight, out of mind” attitude toward people in jail. It is a reflection of our society how we treat people that may not be valued as much as others. Working successfully to prevent suicides in our jail is a great credit to our county. Also, the high status we hold firefighters and police officers should also include corrections officers, a vital public service job I fear we sometimes forget.
Tom Tangen
Vancouver
