Suicide behind bars

I don’t care about Jeffrey Epstein.

I care about the other 600+ men and women (mostly men, mostly—and this may surprise you—white men) who took their own lives behind bars last year. I care that suicide is the leading cause of death in local jails.  Yes, you read that right.

The most recent comprehensive study of deaths behind bars (state and federal prisons, local jails) comes from two reports released by U.S. Department of Justice’s Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) and covers more than a decade of mortality data ending in 2014.

In this report we learn that from 2013 to 2014, the number of suicides among state prisoners increased by 30 percent. Suicides made up 7 percent of all state prisoner deaths in 2014, the largest percentage since 2001. Between 2001 and 2014, whites had a suicide mortality rate of 28 per 100,000 prisoners, compared to 8 for African Americans and 16 for Hispanics. (For comparison, the overall suicide rate in the US is about 13 per 100,000.)

The suicide rate for those in jail (not prison) was much higher: 45 per 100,000 prisoners. For whites, it was 95 per 100,000; compared to 19 for blacks and 23 for Hispanics. On average, a prisoner who committed suicide had been in jail for 9 days. About half of the suicides occurred in general population housing areas, while around 20 percent were in segregation or special housing units. Suicides among jail prisoners in 2014 were up 13 percent from 2013.

I don’t care if that sick, rich, revolting pederast hanged himself or if one of his sick, rich teenage-screwing buddies paid someone to do it. I care about the incarcerated men and women—some serving time for crimes committed, others just awaiting trial—who choose to take their own lives. I care about the deplorable and degrading conditions in jails, the overcrowding and constant threat of violence and sexual abuse in prisons. I care that we lock up people with mental illness and serious addictions. I care that we pay no attention to them. Yet the national media are falling all over themselves to report on Jeffrey Epstein.

When I read the suicide statistics, and read the exposés of jail conditions, and then I experience the dread and emotional deadness of prison life, I don’t wonder why so many people behind bars commit suicide. I wonder why so few do.