Over the span of 15 months, 15 inmates have killed themselves among Alabama state prisons. A federal judge has called for immediate action, as this has gotten to be too severe. It has been acknowledged that mental health services have been extremely inadequate. Part of this is due to having a lack of staff members, but this does not excuse the fact that more can be done to help the inmates. From now on, the staff has to do more to check up on inmates who have attempted or seem to be planning to attempt, and existing policies must be enforced.
My main question about this is: "Why are there so many suicide attempts in the first place?" Obviously we should be trying to help these people, but we cannot fix the problem while ignoring the root of it. Our prison system is seriously corrupt. In the thirteenth amendment, it states that slavery cannot exist except as a punishment for crime. Prisoners are literally treated as slaves, and if you take a closer look at the system and all of its nuances, you can see the slavery was never abolished. Maybe if we finally start acknowledging this, we can actually help prisoners. Prisons are called "correctional facilities", but all they ever focus on is punishment. Maybe if we treat prisoners like human beings, there will be a lower suicide rate. I'm really glad we're taking steps towards normalizing and treating mental health, but we really have to evaluate why these people reach this state.
https://www.npr.org/2019/05/06/720801102/alabama-judge-rules-systematic-inadequacies-fueled-prison-suicides-orders-monito
We are in dire need for prison reform
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