I would guess, the 19 year old juvenile offender was from a minority group, most likely black. Probably had some psychological problems and needed counselling and because of budjet cuts, prison officials could not hire adequate number of counsellors needed for an OVERCROWDE facilty.
It is a sad commentary on our society that though preventive measures are available to keep these young people out of jail, there is no serious effort at federal level to implement some nationwide programmes to reduce the incarceration of the young or the adults.

http://www.jaapl.org/cgi/content/full/34/2/165?maxtoshow=&HITS=9&hits=9&RESULTFORMAT=&andorexacttitle=and&andorexacttitleabs=and&fulltext=prison,+prisons,+penal&andorexactfulltext=or&searchid=1&resourcetype=HWCIT

I'm very sorry to hear that, Bernard. Your wife is someone who can honestly be described as working with a servant's heart, putting those other hypocrites to shame.

Why lockdown, unless there was some suspicion that it wasn't a suicide?

Here is a story of a lockdown in 2005, its causes and it mentions that the major cause of death in a prison is suicide.

http://www.americanchronicle.com/articles/1946

This sort of thing reminds me how powerless I am. I'd like to thank your wife for doing what I, and many other people, seem too feeble to do; for making a genuine effort to improve this world in the most significant way directly accessible to typical individuals. Which I am sure makes her anything but typical.

I agree with Nell and Cody. Prof (Mrs ) Chazelle is a very special person. It takes real dedication, to work in this field. I have friends
who have been working for prison reforms and right to healthcare and improvement in the conditions for inmates for more than twenty years. Only genuine concern for this marginalized population keeps individuals like Mrs Chazelle and other dedicated professionals going. Prof Chazelle, you must be very proud of her and I want to say 'Thank You' to her for doing what she is doing as in my work, I had to deal with some inmates and the injustice of the whole prison system should be unacceptable to us all, especially when the juvenile offenders are tried as adults or housed with adult offenders.

I can't understand how he got the material to do it. Don't they remove belts, sheets, and so on from inmates' cells or is that just in the movies? Or only when the inmate is seen as suicidal? Nineteen years old--that poor kid.

Why was that young man in jail?

Rosemary Molloy: In spite of the guidelines issued by the WHO, conditions are anything but ideal in the prisons for diffrent reasons. ANYTHING can be smuggled into the prison. Illegal drugs are easily brought in. I read a report where a loaded gun was brought in. Usually suicides occur when the young inmates have been kept in a solitary confinement for any length of time( sometimes against the policies of the correctional facility ). And usually they use sheets to hang themselves. If the inmate is noted to be suicidal,one probably would take away any object that may be dangerous to the inmate but often, they do not even get a basic evaluation and suicidal ideation may be missed.

http://suicideandmentalhealthassociationinternational.org/preventionprison.html

Prof Chazelle: I was wondering if this a state or a federal facility or it has been contracted out to private prison managers. I do not know for a fact but I would presume, a progressive state may have a better programme for managing its correctional facilities.