Victoria Valenzuela Substack
Suicide is a leading cause of death in prisons and jails. Advocates say most people experience trauma, substance abuse or mental illness prior to prison, and conditions only exacerbate it.
Photo by halil ibrahim kurucan/ Alamy
Trigger warning: this article discusses suicide and mental health.
When 49-year-old Tamara Hinkle beat the odds of her life sentence and got a date with the California Board of Parole, she was filled with hope that she may finally go home. Then at the start of 2024, there were multiple lockdowns, cell searches and seizures of properties which advocates say was retaliation for a correctional officer’s death. Hinkle was written up for retrieving her property when the search was over. That write up took away her chance with the Board of Parole. She lost hope and took her life.
The CIW community remembers Hinkle as a fierce advocate for women’s rights, a family member, and a kind and loving soul who genuinely cared about people. She was incarcerated most of her life, since she was 19 years old. She loved the color purple and butterflies. She wanted to own and operate transitional/sober living homes for parolees to begin a new life.
In an article Hinkle wrote for the Families United to End Life Without Parole before she died, she said:
“My goal is to share my story, my struggles, and my journey so that other women are able to learn from my mistakes as well as my recovery that there are positive, healthy choices which will lead to them becoming better women and better people.”
“I know she was tormented by her time and the fact of being here most of her life was not something that she expressed to people or wore on her sleeve, but to know her was to know her struggle,” wrote the California Coalition for Women Prisoners on behalf of the inside community.
At the same time, another incarcerated woman called the other women’s institution in California “suicide city” for the fatalities there. Even more, research has shown that incarcerated men are more likely to commit suicide than women. Suicide is a leading cause of death in prisons and jails in the United States. Advocates say most people experience trauma, substance abuse or mental illness prior to prison, and inhumane conditions and lack of agency only exacerbate it.
The Prison Policy Initiative reported:
“Prisons have been, and continue to be, dangerous places, exposing incarcerated people to unbearable physical and mental conditions. State prison systems must greatly improve medical and mental healthcare, address the relationship between correctional officers and the health of their populations, and work with parole boards to accelerate release processes. Then, maybe, a state prison sentence would not become a death sentence for so many.
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Incarceration is not only difficult for someone who comes in with mental health needs, but it creates and exacerbates disconnection, despair, and overall psychological distress. Prison is basically a mental health crisis in and of itself, and too many incarcerated people contemplate and/or complete suicide.”
Between 2020-2024, there were 3,325 suicides in prisons and jails in the U.S. Additionally, from 2001 to 2019, the number of suicides increased 85% in state prisons, 61% in federal prisons, and 13% in local jails. Nearly a fifth of the nation’s 1,161 state and federal prisons and a tenth of the 2,845 local jails had at least one suicide in 2019. More suicides happen among incarcerated people than the general population.
Suicides are also common in formerly incarcerated people even when they get out of prison, especially those under 45 years old. The trauma of prison never goes away.
Samaritans, a nonprofit dedicated to suicide prevention, conducted a study where they interviewed 51 people in prison and found that “many people who self-harm are struggling with basic unmet needs: from clean clothes and timely healthcare to meaningful human connection. Self-harm is often a response to feeling ignored, powerless, or isolated, and for some, it becomes the only way to be heard.”
They found that incarcerated people who reported self-harm felt desperation and loss of control, a lack of distractions and social interactions helps them avoid thoughts of self-harm, a general lack of trust that staff would care for them, long waiting lists and inconsistent access to professional mental health services, and feelings that their attempts to communicate were not listened to or acknowledged.
In the report, Samaritans stated that addressing self-harm in prison requires listening, consistency, and dignity.
The PPI suggested that prisons can address suicides is by reducing the prison populations and increasing the amount of parole hearings and approval rates so more people can go home. PPI said that separating incarcerated people from their families and the rapidly changing world for a long period of time negatively impacts their mental health and sense of purpose.
They also suggested changes to sentencing policies like “second-look” policies for those currently serving excessive sentences to send individuals home earlier where they might be able to find healing in their communities.
Additionally, they recommended providing high-quality treatment for substance use disorders and mental health to prevent incarcerated people from turning to desperate and dangerous solutions.
They stated:
“The significant increase in overall ‘unnatural’ deaths, like suicide, homicide, and drug intoxication tells us that state prisons are failing to provide humane conditions for incarcerated people, and it’s killing them. There are many ways that state prisons and related agencies can reduce the risk of death.”
Note: If you or someone you know may be considering suicide or is in crisis, call or text 988 to reach the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline. You are note alone, things will get better, have hope, you are beautiful.
Victoria Valenzuela is an independent journalist based in California covering issues in the criminal legal system, gender equality, activism, and social justice. She has been published in The Guardian, BuzzFeed News, LAist, Bolts, ScheerPost, and more. She is also a former intern with the National Association of Hispanic Journalists, was an emerging reporter fellow with ProPublica, uprising fellow with Just Media, and part of the inaugural cohort of the Law and Justice Journalism Project. She recently graduated from the University of Southern California with a master’s degree in specialized journalism with a concentration in social justice and investigations.