It’s a strange thing the way we treat people who are suicidal. In Australia, if someone is actively suicidal we tend to lock them in hospital psych wards, take away their phone, shoelaces, belts from bathrobes and can keep them there involuntarily so long as they are deemed a risk to themselves or others. This is not people accused of crime, this is any one of us. And public psych wards tend to not be particularly therapeutic places, but the idea is to completely remove access to any means of suicide. And it generally works, at least for the time the person is there. I’d go as far as to say that this experience can be quite traumatising for some.
Similar principal seemingly applied with RA and prison, not saying it was the right decision but do think it was deemed the safest option at the time.