Suicide an alarming trend in America's overcrowded jails

[webfact]

Opinion

Suicide an alarming trend in America's overcrowded jails
Mary Sanchez
The Kansas City Star
McClatchy-Tribune News Service

"Good, strong shoe laces should be available day or night to all inmates who want them."

"I personally do not see a problem here ... saves us all money and prison space ... go for it, losers!"

The vitriol on the social media never fails. News that Cleveland kidnapper and rapist Ariel Castro hanged himself in prison last week tipped off an avalanche. Much of it like these "good riddance" comments.

It's difficult to muster much, if any, sympathy for Castro. He kept Amanda Berry, Gina DeJesus and Michelle Knight imprisoned as sexual playthings for more than a decade. His convictions included kidnapping, rape and murder by causing the deaths of at least two unborn babies after he impregnated one of the women.

The coward plea-bargained to escape the death penalty, only to impose it on himself. And now this final action ensured that he'd never serve more than a few months behind bars, a fraction of what he inflicted on the three women.

From that perspective, his suicide is galling because it is a slap in the face to justice.

But this is where the conversation needs to turn away from just Castro. Because his suicide highlighted a little known fact about American prisons: more inmates die by suicide than murder, overdose and accidents combined.

Again, set aside the public's penchant for vengeance in this case. The vast majority of prisoners that experts pinpoint as at-risk to commit suicide are nowhere near as depraved as Castro.

Prison serves more purposes than the most obvious - protecting the rest of society from dangerous criminals. Incarceration is also intended to rehabilitate, to punish and to do justice to victims by imposing an appropriate level of suffering on the prisoner by taking the rights and privileges of freedom. None of those ends are met with a suicide.

According to the US Justice Department, 185 inmates in American state prisons committed suicide in 2011, which is 14 suicides per 100,000 inmates. People are far more likely to die of medical illnesses in state custody than anything, with cancer and heart disease the leading causes.

But when suicide alone is looked at, there are wide disparities state-to-state in the percentage of prison deaths that can be attributed to suicide.

In addition to state prison suicides, 310 other inmates took their own lives in local jails in 2011, which figures out to a rate of 43 suicides per 100,000 prisoners.

A 2007 study created profiles of those more likely to commit suicide, and it's disturbing. These poor souls are not the sort of people that most would wish ill upon. Pre-trial inmates were identified among those highly at risk for suicide, not surprising when their descriptions unfold. This group tends to be male and young, 20-25 years old. They aren't married, this is their first offence and it's usually for a relatively minor substance abuse violation. In fact, this category of inmate is often still intoxicated when they take their life.

In fact, juvenile offenders, especially when they are put in adult facilities, are at very high risk.

Given the prevalence of mental health problems in the nation's prisons, some of this might not be all that surprising. But it's doubtful that the deaths of these less notable inmates will ever receive the level of publicity and scrutiny given Castro's death. Already, two separate inquires have been launched by Ohio authorities.

If the death of their torturer gives any solace to Berry, DeJesus and Knight, so be it. But the words and wishes of Knight ring with increased poignancy now: "You will die a little every day as you think about the 11 years and atrocities you inflicted on us," she told Castro at his sentencing of life plus 1,000 years.

Castro, in committing suicide, escaped that sentence.


-- The Nation 2013-09-10

[uty6543]

For all the prisoners that cannot be rehabilitated, pedophiles, serial murders I have no sympathy for them. Do us all a favor kill yourselves. For those who have made a stupid mistake and finished up in prison do your time and good luck on your release. Especially the young offenders we all make mistakes when we are young.

[tigermonkey]

Not much of a story here. The suicide rate in prisons of 14 per 100,000 is not statistically very different than the rate of 13 in the general ( unincarcerated) population, and is tiny compared to the general rate of 35 in South Korea.

I don't see any reference to or statistics concerning the "overcrowded jails" which are proclaimed in the headline.

Perhaps we are to infer from the number of suicides in pretrial jails, that those facilities are overcrowded. I am not sure of the point here, but I think that the high rate in pretrial, and the high South Korean rate can both more likely be attributed to severe loss of face.

[kamahele]

Our jails are overcrowded due to many reasons both legal and cultural and private jails are big business in the states. It is cheaper to put your prisoners in a private prison perhaps in a different state than to build and staff a prison with government employees. As the Attorney General stated about a month ago, the system of mandatory sentences does not work and will no longer be followed at the federal level but it is up to each state to define if they will continue to follow their own mandatory sentencing guidelines. Far too often, people are locked away for minor drug offences when they should be put in rehab instead. But too many Americans want to just lock them up and throw away the key. I think that many young men will kill themselves out of shame or despair and some like Castro because he was just so <deleted> selfish.

Edited September 10, 2013 by kamahele

[Saradoc1972]

The US have the largest prison population the world by a very big margin. By absolute numbers those 6 million prisoners are way more than Stalin ever send to Siberian gulags in the Soviet Union, per capita only North Korea gets anywhere close (although that includes "vanished" people and it can be safely assumed US prison conditions are not anywhere near comparable to both in a positive way).

The main problem is those totally outrageous sentences of decades and more. This swells the prison populance like nothing else. Germany raised criminal sentences around 2000 and we are now at 80.000 prisoners where before it was 65.000 with the same low-ish crime-rate, and the individual states get sued time after time for inadequate prison conditions now.

If somebody is not deterred from committing a crime by the prospect of jail for even only a year or two, losing his job, his home, possibly his family and social circles, threatening 20 years will not do the job.That perpetrator will commit that crime thinking/hoping not to get caught. Most later convicts never lost a thought on what might happen or what they might say to their defense if they get caught.

For centuries lawmakers have even introduced death penalties for some crimes they wanted to vanish, and the only result was executions of people who proceeded anyway.

Europe-wide maximum sentences will range between 15-30 years, normally around 20 years effectively by parole or otherwise. A handful of people in a given country might actually never get free, but that is it. One of the reasons for this is that it is held that jailing up people for good for general prevention is making them objects of state actions, i.e. taking their life away effectively for the purpose of deterring others.

If I read about our good PTC Manning battling against a maximum sentence of some 130 years (this is just ridiculous) I asked myself why he even bothered putting up a defence. Like he would envision to be able to live outside prison after even 20 years of a highly regulated existence inside.

Well, got 35 years (ridiculous!), possible parole after nine years. OK; now we're talking.Thing is, it's all up to the mercy of the state and it's parole board, when a citizen is entitled to laws that will enshrine rights instead of a broad framework that will allow for anything or nothing. And it's that hopelessness that will make people commit suicide. A rate of 43 per 100k is way above acceptable.

[lee b]

The wrong way to end life.

[pacovl46]

Here's the thing: prisons in the Us are privatized which means there's "companies" out there who directly profit from people being incarcerated, which is completely wrong in my opinion. Judges deliberately hand down heavy sentences to keep these companies in business. Teenagers being sent away for 25 to live without the possibility of early parole, or even worse like get life without parole at the age of 16 like Nathan Ybanez, and then they wonder why a lot of them commit suicide?

I totally get that some people need to be locked away forever, but most don't. The other thing is that they place zero emphasis on rehabilitating criminals. How do they expect people to fit in with society after 25 years in the can, surrounded by lifers who will never ever see the light of day again and therefore behave like total animals in there because they've got nothing to lose. How many people who just want to do their time get caught up in this? They seriously need to rethink their punitive system over there.

[Jingthing]

A long prison sentence most anywhere, certainly in the USA or Thailand but not Norway, would be a rational justification for offing yourself in many cases.

[deepcell]

It is news just because they are Americans and worth more then others.. LOL
I would do the same if I get arrest for something, since they are a "Bad Ass" why still serving the system? for what reason? everything is already lost... just finish yourself and be happy in the other side. LOL

[Phronesis]

I am confused.

How is it possible to commit suicide in an American jail.

Surely each prisoner does not have access to a condo balcony?

[MacWalen]

If sentenced to 99 years and over not all alarming at all. I do believe in death penalty and dont care if others disagree.

Sent from my GT-I9190 using Thaivisa Connect Thailand mobile app

[Saradoc1972]

If sentenced to 99 years and over not all alarming at all. I do believe in death penalty and dont care if others disagree.

Sent from my GT-I9190 using Thaivisa Connect Thailand mobile app

Let's not talk death penalty here, it's beside the point. You will always find some particularly gruelling case where you can get a huge majority of people agreeing to death penalty or a true life sentence (and even then the next equally gruelling case is just around the corner).

Point is, if somebody is facing something like a life sentence on account of three-strikes or even "just" a decade or three in prison anyway (picture yourself being 40 now and then 70 when getting out - it's basically your whole life): what incentive is left NOT carrying a gun and using it to try and shoot your way out or pre-emptively killing your victim? You basically just lost most of the deterrence.

[ravip]

Over crowding in prisons? Suicide?

In America?

Oh God, I cannot believe this!

Maybe this news item refers to another country?