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person. And we have to have really good firsthand information before we proceed."
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• First stop is often jail
• If they suspect the person should be committed to a mental health facility for his or her own safety, law enforcement takes that information to the local mental health board, and then to a judge who has final say.
• Unfortunately, a person contemplating suicide may need to be held in a secure facility in the community while this process is completed--and in some rural communities, the only secure facility is the local jail.
• "We usually end up having to put that person in a protective cell until all that paperwork can be done, and that can be tricky when you've got to call a judge at 3 in the morning," Hall said. "It can take just a few hours, or it can take days."
• Spending time in jail is not ideal for a person in a suicidal state of mind, but it can be a good temporary option, said Kristin Wheeler, a prevention specialist with Community Counseling Services in Huron, S.D.
• "We can help them and support them in a safe way (while in protective custody)," Wheeler said. "If someone's desperate, taking them out of that environment even temporarily can help to calm them."
• But Sara McGregor Okroi, executive director of Aliive Roberts County, was frustrated with the process in her area, where a temporary stop in jail didn't feel all that temporary.
• "There was a severe lack of services in the community," McGregor Okroi said. "(Authorities) couldn't guarantee that they would have an assessment in 24 hours … For somebody that is suicidal, (spending indefinite time in jail) was just taking that and making it so many times worse."
• A suicide prevention task force in Sisseton, which had been organized by the Sisseton Ministerial Association in 2004, took up the issue and worked with the agencies involved to improve the response.
• "Coteau Hospital in Sisseton has come leaps and bounds in the last year," she said, and now a person can be transported to the emergency room in Sisseton instead of to jail until a decision is made on what the next step should be. "Medical staff has really stepped up, and now everyone is seen." 
• Jail is still the only safe place in many communities, however. Law enforcement officers do what they can to make the situation as supportive as possible.
• "We try to deal with the person with kid gloves, and we're honestly trying to help and protect them, not aggravate them," Hall said.
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