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Mich. inmates on suicide watch part of multi-million dollar study

Researcher will spend four years studying how to prevent those who have served jail time from taking their own lives

By C1 Staff

FLINT, Mich. — A researcher hoping to prevent the suicide of offenders who have recently been released from prison will spend four years tracking Genesee County Jail inmates.

MLive reports that Jennifer Johnson, Charles Stewart Mott endowed professor of public health at Michigan State University, was recently awarded an $6.8 million grant from the Mental Institution of Mental Health and National Institute of Justice to keep those who serve jail time from taking their own lives.

The study will recruit participants from the jail in Flint, as well as a jail in Rhode Island, where a second principle investigator is located.

Researchers will work with the jails to target offenders with a suicide risk, and then provide interventions and help through counselors and other avenues.

Johnson has already been hiring for the project, including one full-time project coordinator, three full-time research assistants and counselors that will offer their services. Recruiting for participants will begin in February.

Genesee County Sheriff Robert Pickell said this study will be beneficial for the community as it fills gaps that his department doesn’t have resources for.

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