Suicide Prevention Among People Recently Released from Jail: Linking Data from Jail Release Reports to Electronic Health Records

Suicide risk among people recently released from jail is a critical problem of public health significance. Half (40-50%) of incarcerated individuals report lifetime suicidal ideation or behavior and 13-20% have attempted suicide. Incarcerated individuals are more likely to die by suicide than the general population. Jail release is a particularly high-risk period, as individuals often struggle with mental health concerns, including acute life stressors, and many fall through the cracks without community connection to mental health services. A new large trial is underway testing a novel informatics solution linking public jail release data with health system records via an automated computer program consisting of a set of common demographic and other data elements to stimulate immediate virtual care coordination, suicide risk screening, brief intervention, and an evidence-based telemedicine-based suicide prevention program called Coping Long Term with Active Suicide Program (CLASP) for those who screen positive. In this nested study, we provide data on the informatics matching approach to link jail records with health system records at one large health system in the US to initiate the telemedicine-based intervention. Data were examined from 1,363 individuals released from a county jail over a 2-month period. The informatics algorithm successfully matched 1,050 individuals to their health records. These data support initiation of the innovative intervention and provide promise that health systems can offer a solution to fill the gap in suicide risk after jail release.