Ariel Castro and the Reality of Suicide Behind Bars

Late Tuesday night, Ariel Castro, the Cleveland man convicted of kidnapping, imprisoning, and repeatedly assaulting three women over the course of a decade, hanged himself in his cell.

While it may seem surprising that a high-profile prisoner like Castro was able to take his own life, keeping inmates from killing themselves is actually difficult. In prisons, suicide outpaces homicide 3-1; in jails, the ratio is 17-1. Castro was being held at a facility between the two, where he was, according to Reuters, "undergoing a series of mental and physical evaluations before being transferred to a more permanent lockup."