Suicide in Prisoners Caused by Mental Illness
Student’s Name
Institution Affiliation
Suicide in Prisoners Caused by Mental Illness
The World Health Organization (WHO) recognizes suicide as a significant cause of death in prisons and jails (Bartlett et al., 2018). There is also a prevalence of suicide in prisons. Researchers have identified various underlying causes of suicide among prisoners, such as mental illnesses (Bartlett et al., 2018). The U.S. prison system is massive and hosts many people convicted for different reasons. Mental illness in the U.S. prison system is disproportionately represented, where almost half of all persons incarcerated have mental illness compared to eleven percent in the general population. Although eleven percent of mentally ill persons in the general population is quite significant, the prisoners’ prevalence is quite high (Fazel et al., 2016). Mental illness is a significant cause of suicide among prisoners.
The United States prison system hosts the highest number of prisoners around the world. It has been pointed out that prisons can aggravate poor mental health, intensify vulnerability, and increase the risk of suicide or self-harm (Hoke, 2015). Persons in prison are vulnerable and at the risk of committing suicide. The situation is worse for persons with mental disorders. Life in prison is not easy, and many predisposing factors expose prisoners to develop suicidal thoughts.
There are varying data on the number of people who are incarcerated and also mentally ill. The U.S. prison system experiences a lot of challenges in treating prisoners with mental illness. Some of the reasons why the standards of care often fall below the acceptable standards are lack of enough resource allocations to the prison system and conflict of interest between security protocols and healthcare providers (Fazel et al., 2017). Even the U.K., which is considered to have made significant milestones in prison healthcare, tries to enhance such care based using on the concept of equivalence. The idea of equality tries to make the healthcare level in prisons as equivalent as possible to the healthcare available at the service level (Fazel et al., 2017).
The prevalence of mental disorders among prisoners across western countries is quite significant. A review of sixty-two cases of mental health issues among prisoners indicated the following diagnosis among male inmates: 10 percent of major depression, 3 to 7 percent psychotic disorder, and 47 percent antisocial personality disorder. A similar review indicated relatively higher results for the women population. In addition to the tabulated results, many prisoners also had suicidal behaviors, organic disorders, anxiety disorders, and stress resulting from various forms of drug and substance abuse (Hoke, 2015).
The prevalent deinstitutionalization of individuals with mental illnesses, coupled with the lack of appropriate community-based mental health programs, has led to a rise in the number of inmates with advanced mental illness (Melnikov et al., 2017). Given the number of mentally ill prisoners and the traumatic events within which they are exposed to in prison, it does not come as a surprise that suicide is a significant cause of deaths in U.S. prisons. The prison system should analyze the relationship between the various underlying factors related to suicide risk.
The most significant responsibility of the prisons is to hold prisoners or criminals and keep them away from society. Therefore, security is the primary concern of the jails. Perhaps the most significant barrier to providing mental health care to incarcerated persons is the mission of correction facilities, which includes securing prison facilities and maintaining a safe environment for both inmates and staff (Mills & Kendall, 2018). For example, the Federal Bureau of prison’s main objective is to provide excellent correctional services, which means that all employees within the prison system, including healthcare workers, are correctional workers first. However, healthcare workers providing services in the correctional facilities intend to give quality care to the patients (Hoke, 2015). Balancing the core objectives of the correctional system and that of healthcare workers is a challenging task.
The World Health Organization estimated that there is an attempted suicide every three seconds, and one gets successful every minute (Fazel et al., 2016). There are various reasons why individuals commit suicide, but one generally accepted fact is that prisoners are more vulnerable, especially when exposed to a combination of stressors. Prisoners are exposed to multiple factors such as legal battles, the trauma of being separated from the loved ones, and culture shock.
Incarcerated persons with mental illnesses are most vulnerable because of their inability to handle stress, further heightening the existing stressors. The most highly associated psychiatric illness to suicide is depressive disorders. Anxiety and situational factors such as segregation raise the risk of suicide. The different stressors present in incarceration facilities, together with the deteriorating psychiatric illness, pose a significant challenge in providing mental health care.
Smaller jails are identified to record higher suicide rates than the extensive correctional facilities such as state and federal prisons. Smaller prisons usually are gateways into the justice system for most inmates. Individuals held in small jails and prisons are often first time offenders who have their first experience with the criminal justice system. Being the first experience, it usually brings a lot of pressure and stress to these individuals. The inmates typically lose hope in their consistency as law-abiding citizens and experience a hard time dealing with the guilt created by committing a crime. First-time offenders usually face humiliation from friends, families, and the community (Mills & Kendall, 2018). A combination of all these stressors, combined with inadequate health professionals, increases the rates of suicide in small prisons.
The prison environment is in itself suitable for suicide and related behaviors. The inmate environment provides incarcerated persons with privacy and isolation that harbors predisposing factors for suicide. Most prison facilities do not have mental health facilities for the inmates; hence they struggle with their mental disorders without being accorded formal help. Most correctional facilities separate people and deny them the opportunity to create social support networks (Hoke, 2015). A significant proportion of people are also statistically at higher risk of committing suicide, including the youth, persons who abuse drugs, alcohol, and other related substances, and people mental illness. The risk is elevated by issues such as drug dependency and the need to withdraw from drugs once incarcerated (Melnikov et al., 2017).
Suicidal inmates usually have a history of such behaviors and generate warning signs that healthcare professionals can identify and respond to. One of the common warning signs is telling their colleagues about their desires to die or kill themselves. While some of these warnings are always not taken with enough seriousness, researches have cited this warning sign as the single most warning sign of suicidal behaviors Melnikov et al., 2017). Several other common warning signs include a feeling of hopelessness, feeling that there is no life after prison, agitation, anxiety, a history of suicidal attempts, and extreme mood swings (Hoke, 2015).
Responding to mental health challenges in prisons benefits the prisoners, prison employees, and the community. Providing inmates with the appropriate mental health care will improve their health, experience, quality of life, and the entire prison population (Fazel et al., 2016). The first and critical thing is to promote awareness of the challenges experienced by inmates with mental health challenges, which can lead to a reduction in discrimination and stigma. Responding to the needs of inmates with psychological issues also improves their capacity to adjust to community life once they get out of prison and reduce the likelihood that such persons will get back to prison. The presence of inmates with mental challenges also complicates the experiences of employees working within the correctional facilities. A facility that responds to its populations’ mental health needs is likely to boost its staffs’ overall motivation wellbeing. It is also critical to acknowledge that inmates’ mental wellbeing of inmates cannot be addressed without looking at the general mental health of the community (Fazel et al., 2017). There is always an interchange between the community and the prisons, and therefore, the mental health of inmates is in the best interest of the community.
Suicide is a significant contributor to inmates’ deaths. Most of these deaths are attributed to mental health disorders among the inmates’ population. Life in prison is challenging and predisposes inmates to conditions that cause mental health issues. A significant proportion of inmates suffer from mental health illness, creating an urgent need to respond to prisoners’ healthcare needs. It is the only viable option for reducing suicide cases among prisoners linked to mental illness.
References
Bartlett, A., Frater, A., & Hyde, S. (2018). Suicide and the criminal justice system: a more complete picture. The Lancet Psychiatry, 5(2), 106-107.
Fazel, S., Hayes, A. J., Bartellas, K., Clerici, M., & Trestman, R. (2016). The mental health of prisoners: prevalence, adverse outcomes, and interventions. The Lancet Psychiatry, 3(9), 871-881.
Fazel, S., Ramesh, T., & Hawton, K. (2017). Suicide in prisons: an international study of prevalence and contributory factors. The Lancet Psychiatry, 4(12), 946-952.
Hoke, S. (2015). Mental illness and prisoners: Concerns for communities and healthcare providers. The online journal of issues in nursing, 20(1).
Melnikov, S., Elyan‐Antar, T., Schor, R., Kigli‐Shemesh, R., & Kagan, I. (2017). Nurses teaching prison officers: a workshop to reduce the stigmatization of prison inmates with mental illness. Perspectives in Psychiatric Care, 53(4), 251-258.
Mills, A., & Kendall, K. (Eds.). (2018). Mental health in prisons: critical perspectives on treatment and confinement. Springer.