Suicide And Aristotle's Problem Of Suicide In Prisons

Everyday correctional officials work to deal with mental health inmates. Often hotly debated, many search for ways to work with this growing population. Glaze and Bonczar (2009) estimate around 2.3 million people are incarcerated within the US and of those, 20 percent suffer from some form of mental disorder. Even with such a high number, the rate of mental illnesses within the prison system is on the climb. Many of these inmates will remain incarcerated and receive little to no treatment for their mental issues. This essay, will look at the practices associated when dealing with mental illness and discuss the strategies on dealing with this growing issue.

Suicide was seen as a just way to die if one was faced with unendurable suffering - be it physical or emotional”. Throughout time, suicide has been viewed and dealt with in countless ways. Recently in America, the problem has grown increasingly. In the past decade, suicide rates have been on the incline; especially among men. According to the New York Times (2013), “From 1999 to 2010, the suicide rate among Americans ages 35 to 64 rose by nearly 30 percent… The suicide rate for middle-aged men was 27.3 deaths per 100,000, while for women it was 8.1 deaths per 100,000”. A 30 percent increase with an average of 19 more male suicides than female suicides is certainly an issue for both genders, and an epidemic for men. The American Foundation for Suicide Prevention (n.d.), found that in 2010, 38,364 suicides were reported, with 78.9% being men. The economic recession, unemployment, and various other factors are speculated to be responsible for this incline in male suicide. As of 2010, an estimated 30,308 men ended their own lives, and it seems as if there is a great risk of that number increasing each year.

The shutdown of state mental hospitals and lack of available financial and institutional resources force mentally ill people to the United States Judicial System for mental health. Every year thousands of people are arrested for various crimes and they are sent to jail. Sixteen percent of these people have some type of mental health problem (Public Broadcasting System , 2001). When we consider that the United States has the largest incarcerated population in the world at 2.2 million, this number is staggering (Anasseril E. Daniel, 2007). This is about 1% of the entire population of the United States. There are many reasons as to why the situation has taken such a bad turn and when the history of the treatment of mental illness is examined one can see how the situation developed into the inhumane disaster it is today.

Many people think that self-harm is no big deal. “It’s just for attention,” they say “they’re not really hurting themselves… right?” Wrong. Self-harm is a HUGE deal. In fact, it is 40-100 times more common than suicide. Suicide has been around for ages, while self-harm is a new trend that has been growing since the mid 1990’s, and the numbers are still skyrocketing. Self-harm was three times more common in 2011 than in 2007. Now, tell me that you think that that isn’t a big deal. Statistics show that 1% of the United States self-harms. So imagine you are in a room with 200 other people. It is likely that two of these people hurt themselves. Sometimes it is daily, other times it may just be occasional. Two people may not seem like a lot, but in reality it is.

Suicide is, according to Sartre, “an opportunity to stake out our understanding of our essence as individuals in a godless world” (Stanford, 2004). Fundamentally, existentialism argues all individuals are free and therefore responsible for their actions. Thus, it is up to the individual to create an ethos of personal ideology, which is the only way one is able to rise above the human condition of suffering, death and finality (Guigon, 2001). Suicide is seen as the individual’s act of giving in to the absurdity of human life. In other words, when a human is unable to create meaning out of the absurdity that surrounds him or herself, her or she live the typical life of pain, suffering, death and thus make suicide a natural act of existence

People commit suicide on a daily basis, not only in the United States of America, but all over the entire world. Dying by suicide or losing someone from suicide can be incredibly traumatic for families, loved ones, and the victim. Also, dying from suicide by hanging, shooting, or harming oneself is not the utmost, moral, or ethical way to die, due to the physical pain. Furthermore, there are a

(Winkler 1992). The acts take place at these specific times and days due to the

Death, sadness, and craziness are attributes that are not looked too highly upon in society. As one starts to delve into Edgar Allan Poe’s life, the sadness he dealt with is found within the pages of his texts; something sad and dark always hangs in the background, making it difficult to read some of his works. In terms of what people deal with on a daily basis, the mental health issue in the United States has come to the forefront again because we are becoming more attuned to the problems people face in a “civilized” society. In the old days, we would lock those with major mental issues up in state mental health institutions; however, as we have moved forward and tried to save money as a government, the state mental health hospitals have been shut down, and we, as a nation, must find a new way to

In 2010 of April Danarory Countryman of Westchester County Prison did something that an unusually high number of state prison inmates have done, she hanged herself in her cell. Countryman’s suicide was one of 17 in state in state lockups in 2010. During the year of 2010 suicide rates went from 17.8 suicides per 100,000 inmates to 20.7. This is five times more the suicides that have been going on in the recent years. (Parrish1)

In today’s prison systems inmate are subjected to the four main purposes of prison, which are retribution (punishment), incapacitation placed in prison), deterrence (stop future crimes), and rehabilitation (re-submission into society). The BOP (Bureau of Prison) recognizes that being incarcerated can take a toll on inmates and family members who are locked behind bars. The services and agencies within the prison try to work carefully, providing full knowledge and education to correctional staff and inmates on suicide prevention. Every staff member will get annual trainings on the mentally ill and suicide prevention. The BOP reports “After an inmate arrives at an institution, during the admission and orientation process, every inmate receives information on mental health services available at the site” (BOP, n.d.). Inside the prison walls there are Psychology Services members that are on call at many of these institutions, which they provide crisis intervention and support services for inmate who need it. The Bureau of Prison gives their staff severe training, giving them first hand participation in the efforts to prevent crisis through the inmate’s imprisonment. The treatment that these inmates receive can possibly improve

If a society is to be judged how it treats its most disadvantaged members, then the United States is in a very lowly state of affairs. The United States currently incarcerates over 356,000 individuals diagnosed with some form of mental illness. This is ten-fold the number of people receiving treatment in psychiatric hospitals, around 35,000 (Frances). Leaving us with the question, when did suffering from a mental illness become a crime worthy of incarceration? Doubt no longer remains as to if the this system is broken, as indicated by recent report from the Treatment Advocacy Center and the National Sheriffs’ Association, which after surveying sheriffs and prison administrators, concluded on three main points. Mental illness among prison populations are growing in numbers as well as severity, prison and jail officers feel compelled to supply a hospital level treatment regimen, and that the problem originates in the mediocre aftercare provided for those who are released accompanied by the continual closure of state psychiatric centers (Felthous). What must be asked now is how does one mend a system on the edge of crisis. There are many propositions on how this may be done, but they can be summed up into the following strategies: the creation of resources to intervene before situations ever become critical, newer and better training of first responders, EMTs, and police officers in mental health emergencies, reformation in the way judges sentence those suffering from

Jails and prisons are overcrowded unpleasant environments which make it harder on mentally ill inmates causing behavioral problems, especially those not treated. Failing to provide treatment for mentally ill inmates is another problem they face. Leaving these inmates without treatment for extended periods in dangerous and can detrimental for the mentally inmates and those around them. Failing to provide treatment happens more frequently in county jails than prisons. Without treatment the mentally ill symptoms worsen and lead to them becoming victimized or even committing suicide. Furthermore, mentally ill inmates are victimized more often than other prisoner. In fact, “1 in 12 prisoners with a mental disorder reported at least one incident of sexual victimization by another inmate over a six-month period, compared with 1 in 33 male inmates without a mental disorder” (Ditton, 1999). This sad reality can ultimately lead to another problem mentally ill inmate’s face. Not surprising, suicide in prisons and jails occur frequently more among inmates who are mentally ill. A study of 154 suicides in California prison system reported that 73% had a history of mental treatment (Dittion, 1999). Placing the mentally ill in prisons and jails instead of mental hospital can eventually lead to this sad truth of mentally ill inmates taking their own lives. For one Harrisburg man, his schizophrenia went from manageable to beyond control after he was incarcerated. Diagnosed at the early age of twenty, Betty’s son was stable and taking his medications. However, his health took a turn for the worse; he was arrested for selling drugs and put into a state prison for three years. His mental health deteriorated drastically, as he cycled in and out of jail through most of his life as most mentally ill do, he became worse and worse each time. Betty recalls visiting her son in prison, his hair

The failure to identify proper alternative to restraint usage or to know when restraints are indicated could account for over 150 restraint-related deaths in America annually (SAMHSA, 2004b). Diagnostic failures, such as when to treat, how to treat, or even who needs treated, are impossible to quantify; but it is likely that this factor accounts for many deaths by suicide. Still, national, cultural, and social consequence can be much more staggering. Mental health conditions make up the number one cause for death and disability in American women and the second cause in American men. Mental health ailments account for a large amount of absenteeism in the workplace, as well as impaired thinking and judgment, and critical mistakes on the job. Child welfare is even impacted, with 48% of child welfare services investigations having clinical implications for mental health care problems. In facilities housing youth that await mental health services, 48% of these facilities report suicide attempts among their youth (U.S. House of Representatives, 2004). The social burden continues snowballing with an exponentially growing prison population, going from 601 persons in custody in 100,000 US residents in 1995 to one person in custody in 140 US residents (Harrison and Karberg, 2004). 16% of this population report a mental health condition or, at least, a history of a minimum of one night spent in an inpatient psychiatric unit (Mumola, 1999).

As a result of being kept in polity confinement for extensive amounts of time, prisoners begin to feel like they have “nothing left to lose”, thus, participating in self destructive behaviours. According to The Canadian Medical Association Journal, “14 of 30 prison suicide in the

The more a question is argued the better that question becomes it is often said. That question begins to grow and the side effect of this is the more people it reaches. Whether that question can be put into a category of right or wrong it begs to be answered. Knowledge is something that people instinctively need to function when faced with a problem, an answer must be found or it begins to form eminent possibility in any direction. The problem is a question that no one can truly answer for anyone other than the person faced with it, which is one's own self. The arguments from either side of this philosophical problem must not be centered around one's own belief but all that share the dilemma, which is in fact every human being.