Teen blogger Amos Yee placed on suicide watch in the USA

According to status update on the Facebook Page of Amos Yee, the blogger has been placed on suicide watch in the United States of America (USA). It is unclear who updated the status.

Yee has been detained for about 5 months now. He was detained when he sought asylum in the U.S. after landing at an airport in Chicago. He had previously pointed out that he had been incarcerated longer in the U.S. than he was in Singapore. The status update squarely pointed its fingers at Consul Karen E. Lundgren, Assistant Chief Consul Elizabeth Crites, for the teen blogger’s predicament. He is expected to wait 6 months until the Board of Immigration Appeals decides on his case.

An ICE online database shows Yee is detained at a Wisconsin jail. One news article says that “Wisconsin’s 72 county-run jails are strapped for resources and not prepared to deal with the large numbers of inmates with mental illness they house.”

Yee’s status update also said that Yee was on suicide watch in the jail for the past 2 weeks. The detainees on suicide watch are traditionally locked in a bare cell by themselves, and given paper gowns or tear-proof clothing to prevent them from creating a noose. Their belongings are confiscated.

In 2015 when Yee was incarcerated in Singapore, his lawyer also appealed to the judge that Yee was having suicidal thoughts.