Title: Mental Illness Soars In Prisons, Jails While Inmates Suffer | HuffPost
Headings: Mental Illness Soars In Prisons, Jails While Inmates Suffer
Mental Illness Soars In Prisons, Jails While Inmates Suffer
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Content: Mental Illness Soars In Prisons, Jails While Inmates Suffer | HuffPost
POLITICS
02/04/2013 12:58 pm ET Updated Feb 04, 2013
Mental Illness Soars In Prisons, Jails While Inmates Suffer
By Alana Horowitz Satlin
Armando Cruz tied a noose around his neck and hanged himself from the ceiling of his prison cell. He left a note that ended in two chilling words. “Remember me.” His mother Yolanda, who was shown the note after her son’s death, wants to make sure no one forgets. “They took away my only son,” she says, her voice breaking. Cruz killed himself on Sept. 20, 2011, during his incarceration at California State Prison in Sacramento, after a long history of mental illness. His story, first reported by the blog Solitary Watch, is an example of how the criminal justice system is ill-equipped to handle people with mental health issues. Cruz spent years in solitary confinement and died while locked in a tiny solitary cell. The rates of suicide in solitary confinement tend to be higher than in the general prison population. Suicide is the number one cause of death among inmates in local jails and in the top five for state prisons, according to a federal report.