Background: Suicide in the prison population is often hushed up and may be discovered while assessing general suicides from data obtained from the police.Search of the local literature has not revealed a study of this issue.Methods: The records on suicide for the period 2001 to 2010 were obtained from the Police constabulary Force Statistics office Those records relating to suicide in persons who had been charged by the police, were tabulated and analysed using the SPSS statistical programme.Results: Over the period 2001 to 2010, 22 persons who had been charged and in custody (81%) or not in custody for a variety of reasons (19%), committed suicide, and 90.5% by hanging.Charges ranged from gun possession to murder, with 14.3% being charged with murder and a similar percentage with wounding.Two parishes seemed to have higher numbers of suicides-St Catherine with 28.6% and Kingston, with 14.3%.Both these parishes house a large District prison and a general penitentiary, respectively, in addition to local Iockups (jails).The results from this preliminary survey indicated that 47.6% of suicides occurred in local lock-ups, as opposed to prisons (38.1%).Depressive Disorder was identified in 33.3% of the victims, but for others, neither psychiatric nor medical conditions were known or identified.Discussion: These and other results are discussed in light of findings by the USA Justice department in their analysis of prisoner suicides over a period of 20 years, reported in 2010, and the British recommendations for preventing prison suicide.The USA figures indicated that most suicides occurred most commonly in the local jails and not in the federal prisons.Recommendation: The issue of preventability, via assessment of persons at intake, cell design and overall policy concerning the type and length of incarceration for particular crimes is discussed and recommendations made regarding Jamaicas Criminal justice system and prison reform.