Suicides In Jails

With the number of broken homes, gangs, and negative influences on the rise, it is getting harder and harder for many youths to grow up with self- confidence, respect, and a strong moral foundation.

In American jails there is a frightening amount of inmate suicides that occur, and seem to stay under the radar and unspoken about. There are many different contributing factors that can lead to an inmate ultimately choosing to take his or her own life. Being sentenced to jail can be difficult for various inmates to handle and one can have a risk of developing a mental illness if he or she has not already been diagnosed as mentally ill. A mental illness can become a battle with one’s self that some cannot win, and only see darkness ahead. Inmates being confined in jail can lead to a breaking point, which is suicide. Other factors include inmates being stressed out and fearing imprisonment. Jails across the United States have to take initiative regarding inmate suicides or else the suicide rates could increase. Without treatment, awareness, and prevention there will be no improvement in decreasing the amount of inmate suicides. The conversation of inmate suicide has to be had between jail officials, inmates, and society because there is help out there and everyone must know that it is not cowardly to ask for help.

In order to illustrate a key stage in the life course, I will be looking at the area of adolescence because I believe that this is one of the most critical life stages, with so many immense transitions young people go through. I have chosen to focus on adolescence because of a commitment to working with these vulnerable individuals aged from 14 to 19. We can no doubt all reflect on wrong choices we felt we made in our adolescence, and how our education and employment prospects may have benefited from good advice at this crucial juncture in life. I want to be able to guide vulnerable adolescents in the right direction and help them make the right choices, by understanding their needs, and supporting them in practical ways to live fulfilling and independent lives. From personal experience, I sincerely believe that with the right kind of guidance and attention, troubled teenagers can get back on track.

By reading this book, I learned a lot about teenagers’ critical situations at juvenile hall. This book gave me a greater insight and deeper understanding of what their lives are like and the challenges they face in this place. I also learned that the legal system is not doing a great deal to help these young kids mend their lives. They are not being offered counseling or therapy which could help facilitate a great deal of things for them such as, getting a better orientation of a path for them to follow, dealing with the excessive amount of stress they face in a healthy way

Childhood is a time in which memories are created, adventures are explored and social awareness begins to develop. The events that occur during childhood are pivotal in the development of a healthy and substantial life. However, what if those experiences were taken from a child? What would the outcome be if a child could not experience what it is like to be young? Juvenile incarceration strips a person of their childhood and essentially takes away the experiences necessary for them to develop into healthy functioning adults. Even though juvenile incarceration is an effective method of punishment for those who have committed heinous crimes, the justice system should not convict children and adolescents as adults because of the child 's circumstances that lead to the crime as well as the disastrous effects it causes on the mental and emotional state of the child.

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

Youth incarceration is a growing dilemma in the United States that populates facilities as well as ruins lives at an alarming rate. As a society we cannot expect our kids to be the future of this nation when we are placing them in facilities where they become victims of emotional, physical, and sexual abuse that is far worse for them than adults. Michelle Alexander is a professor at Ohio State University and a graduate of Standford Law school. She states in her award-winning book, The new Jim Crow: Mass incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness "Children are five times more likely to be sexually assaulted once being placed into a facility" (Alexander,123).  Adolescents being detained causes many problems that are much more detrimental to them than adults. Some of them will now have exposure to drugs and gangs. Others will become victims of sexual abuse from other older inmates or staff members and risk transmitting sexual diseases. Most young juveniles have a mental illness that has not been treated or they become suicidal when staying in a facility.  These young people are still adapting to their environment and should not be treated as adults.  They are unable to grow and develop when we are punishing them like adults and trapping them in the US justice system.  The families of these children will now suffer knowing what their child faces in these facilities. As a nation we cannot consider ourselves civilized when we are placing these young people in facilities that punish them like adults.

By being vigilant and being present in today’s youth’s lives we can help prevent them from making bad choices. Much of the article was about cases which involved child abuse and how this is the number one culprit in juvenile delinquency. “Juvenile crime rates have remained relatively low and research has demonstrated the detrimental effects of abuse and violence on children, Defending Childhood brings In defense of children and youth national attention to efforts to prevent victimization and to protect children exposed to violence” (Benekos, Merlo, & Puzzanchera,

The bottom was characterize as a large black neighborhood in Ohio, that stood above the hill of Medallion was a predominately white wealthy community. Before it was call the Bottom, now they call it the suburbs. Consequently, a good slave master promised freedom and piece of land if the slave perform difficult chores, when they finish the work he was hastens about giving away valley land he hope to give away piece of the bottom. However, the slave thought the valley land was the bottom, the master told them when God look down, it's the bottom, it the bottom of heaven best land there is. And they agree to it, And it was done. Shadrack was a citizen of the bottom, he fought in WWI, return back as a damaged man that couldn't cope with reality of what was happening in the world, his mental state of mind was unstable he live around the border of the town to find harmony in his life.

Helping adolescents will circumvent the astronomical amount of money made by prison systems. Change is enviable, but many people want to keep things the same. Jails are making money because inmates work for pennies on the dollar. Most prisons support and employ the whole town or city. Lawmakers and prison owners want to continue to reap the revenue benefits. Progressive laws make better living conditions. Challenges from prison owners and lawmakers will make it harder to protect adolescents from being charged like

In the United States results in thousands of deaths and thousands more injuries annually. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, in 2013, firearms (excluding BB and pellet guns) were used in 84,258 nonfatal injuries (26.65 per 100,000 U.S. citizens) and 11,208 deaths by homicide (3.5 per 100,000), 21,175 by suicide with a firearm, 505 deaths due to accidental discharge of a firearm, and 281 deaths due to firearms-use with "undetermined intent" for a total of 33,169 deaths related to firearms (excluding firearm deaths due to legal intervention). 1.3% of all deaths in the country were related to firearms.

The United States leads the world in the incarceration of young people, there are over 100,000 youth placed in jail each year. Locking up youth has shown very little positive impact on reducing crime. Incarcerating youth have posed greater problems such as expenses, limited education, lack of employment, and effect on juveniles’ mental and physical well-being.

The environment in adult facilities is immensely different from juvenile facilities. Rehabilitation options are limited in adult facilities. It is hard for children to fit in with adults, or even be respected. Lack of attention and bullying are both major problems for juveniles in prison (Human Rights Watch). Juveniles in prison have a 18x greater risk of committing suicide, due to lack of supervision (Juvenile Forensic Evaluation Center) However, juvenile facilities provide higher quality education, adequate health care, and better security. 70% of juveniles are held under locked situations, rather than staff secure settings (Juvenile Forensic Evaluation Center). This decreases the amount of violence between juveniles and the staff. Since depression is a common health issue, juvenile facilities often have treatment available. Giving a juvenile the resources to help, can really benefit them at this

With a rise in inmate suicides, corrections officials in North Carolina issues new guidelines and standards designed to thwart self-inflicted harm. Since January, five suicides occurred, prompting the state to take immediate action.

Juveniles get disobedient and become trouble makers when they have a broken home because they don’t know what it feels like to have someone who gives them love. They look upon their so called “friends” to confer them when they feel sad or feeling like they don’t fit in. These “friends” end up being a bad influences because they put in the mind of the juvenile that the only way they get away from the pain of