Bristol County Sheriff Heroux: Jail suicide rate hits three-decade low

According to a statement from Sheriff Paul Heroux, for the first time in nearly decades, the Bristol County Sheriff’s Office went two years in 2025 and now three consecutive years in 2026 without an inmate suicide.

Prior to 2023, there were between 1-4 suicides most years since 1998. The BCSO had the highest rate of suicide in the state, and was three times the national average. 

When campaigning for Sheriff in 2022, Heroux pledged to address the issue.

“The same month I took office in January 2023, I contracted with Lindsay Hayes, a nationally recognized expert on reducing inmate suicide. Between February and early April, Hayes reviewed our policies and procedures and the history of inmate suicide at our jail. Hayes issued a report which offered 23 specific recommendations to reduce the rate of inmate suicide (the Hayes report can be found here: https://www.bcso-ma.us/Homepage_files/4-4-23_suicidereport.pdf); the 24^th recommendation in the report was that the BCSO act on the first 23 recommendations.”

“The BCSO has implemented all 24 recommendations put forth by Hayes. Some suggestions are still in-progress; for example, hiring more staff or making inmate cells more suicide resistant, which is being done one housing unit at a time. BCSO staff, including contract staff, have adopted the report recommendations and have been instrumental in reducing the rate of inmate suicide.”

“This announcement is intended to serve as a notice of progress in reducing the rate; this is not “Mission Accomplished” or claim that we eliminated inmate suicide or that there will never be an inmate suicide again, despite our improved policies and practices. There is no correctional facility anywhere that can claim to eliminate or stop inmate suicide. While we have made progress reducing the rate of suicide, we cannot eliminate or completely stop inmate suicide. As this press release is being read, it is possible that an inmate could be committing suicide, despite our best efforts to reduce the rate and prevent occurrences.”

“The last BCSO inmate suicide was on 5 January 2023, my second day on the job. The inmate was awaiting trail and placed in our custody by request from another county jail due to the high profile nature of the alleged crime, who was in our custody for three days prior to taking his own life.”