I'm surprised that people sent to jail for decades aren't suicidal

[Exhausted546]

I mean I know some of them do off themselves but I'm just surprised others just keep on moving forward in life despite things looking dire for them. How do they not become hopeless?

 

[EmptyBottle]

I mean I know some of them do off themselves but I'm just surprised others just keep on moving forward in life despite things looking dire for them. How do they not become hopeless?

Maybe because in jail/prison, people make close friends with other prisoners... and potentially have a little mischief, etc.
They could spend time studying, drawing/writing, potentially playing cards, etc... while it's not as much fun as being outside... the strong bonds one may form with other prisoners may make it less bleak.

 

[doomedbynarrative]

Some have people waiting for them for whatever reason on the outside.

 

[Dejected 55]

Depends on why they were in there, what their experience was while incarcerated, and what options they have when/if they are going to be released.

 

[Exhausted546]

Some have people waiting for them for whatever reason on the outside.

Ah makes sense. I just feel like I'd end things almost immediately if I was sent to prison.

 

[COP2CON]

*A wild COP2CON Appears*

 

[Exhausted546]

*A wild COP2CON Appears*

Yeah I thought about you when making the thread, I know I'd already be dead personally. Props to you for holding on

 

[COP2CON]

The internet is about to be turned off for me but I'll respond more tomorrow if I can.

 

[MyLifeisHell]

Most people want to live no matter the circumstances.

 

[Exhausted546]

Most people want to live no matter the circumstances.

That's crazy to me. Maybe I'm the strange one

 

[Neowise]

I might actually enjoy jail more than "free" life. You don't have to do a job you suck at the whole day every day with a boss constantly yelling at you for sucking at it. No one expects anything of you so you won't let anyone down. Wouldn't have to socialize, wouldn't have to visit family. It would be a simple life.

 

[COP2CON]

Most of the lifers here have at least tried at some point. Most don't succeed or are to afraid to. Here if you attempt and fail, your thrown in a 6x6 suicide cell with nothing but a hole in the floor for a bathroom. You are stripped and put in a suicide smock and left for 2 weeks. Its insane. Some move forward because of family or religion and others out of fear if unsuccessful. Some are waiting for court action or just waiting in general. There is a high percentage of in custody suicides, most of the time its not reported because its expected.

 

[Exhausted546]

Most of the lifers here have at least tried at some point. Most don't succeed or are to afraid to. Here if you attempt and fail, your thrown in a 6x6 suicide cell with nothing but a hole in the floor for a bathroom. You are stripped and put in a suicide smock and left for 2 weeks. Its insane. Some move forward because of family or religion and others out of fear if unsuccessful. Some are waiting for court action or just waiting in general. There is a high percentage of in custody suicides, most of the time its not reported because its expected.

Wow thank you, this completely makes sense!

 

[Exhausted546]

T

The suicide rate of prisoner is about 1/1000. Many don't commit suicide because of 1) religion; 2) they never had depressed tendencies, they just liked crime; 3) it's not as easy to commit suicide in prison due to a lack of privacy, a lack of weapons, and being more likely to found after attempting; 4) some have kids and don't commit suicide for that reason; 5) some don't want to die and actually like life.

In the US, when someone has a felony conviction, there's usually an automatic appeal review, and most DAs and judges make mistakes and so prisoners often are hopeful that appeals will come through. It takes years for all appeals to be exhausted. Appeals are rarely successful, a DA can do pretty much anything, even say something that seems shockingly horrible and shockingly illegal procedurally without it being a winnable appeal issue, but it ends up giving people enough hope to sometimes not end things immediately, and then once appeals run out, inmates are more acclimated to the situation. Appeals courts often deny appeals without saying why they denied it, so a DA might say "the person who stole the car was a black person, and the defendant is black, so we know that since he's a black person he stole the car," something that seems completely racist and illegal and in violation of numerous rights, and it doesn't matter. A DA can kick every latino off a jury for a latino defendant and make up some lies and it won't matter. A DA can hide evidence that would help the defendant and it may not matter. Once a person is arrested, the system is incredibly corrupt and theoretical constitutional rights can be denied and usually it never matters. But the fact that appeals exist cause people to not commit suicide sometimes.

No one should ever commit suicide and this is not a suggestion, but rather explaining how hard this is:

There are also levels of prisons, like max to minimum security, and the difference in security level means a large difference in quality of life. If a person attempts, and fails, it could affect classification and where they end up being housed. The ways to die in prison are typically attempting by jumping from a top floor (and there usually aren't that many floors in larger prisons) but there's a risk of surviving that, and then a person is in prison and severely injured which would be much worse. Prisons also don't give out much pain medication because the people who work there are assholes, so people who are worried about getting injured know it will hurt if they don't die. Many guards are sadists and it's unclear if they are drawn to that profession because of sadism or becomes sadists once there. Option 2, hanging: this is hard because sometimes people have cell mates, sometimes guards check on people, but this is probably the easiest way. However, often, in solitary there's nothing to hang the makeshift rope on. Option 3, drug overdose, probably also an easy way, but if you drug overdose, then if someone finds you, your classification changes and you're in trouble for drugs, and it's very possible to be found. It also creates a risky situation because then it may put attention on whoever dealt to you if they are dealing to others and not just you, so people may hate you. It wouldn't be surprising to get a guard saying "tell us who gave you the drugs or we are changing your classification." It's just a bad situation potentially. Many people who overdose throw up, so there's a risk of someone, like a guard, hearing that and receiving medical care. Option 4, making your own weapon and trying to slice an important enough vein or artery to die. Option 4 is scary as hell and hard to do. If you do it too slow, there's a risk of re-classification and being found. Like COP2CON said, they are punitive with how they treat suicidal people. If you say you're suicidal, they abuse you with cold temperature and sensory deprivation and then call it safety and claim it's not abuse.

Even if someone in prison has access to a weapon or something sharp, it's hard to have the guts to shove it in fast and deal with the pain, and there's a risk of getting caught, there's a risk of someone seeing, and there's a risk the weapon won't penetrate something important and just cause an injury. Bleeding out from self-injury is also a difficult slow and sucky way to die. It often doesn't work.

It's 1000 times harder to end things in a prison than it is outside of a prison, even if you don't have access to a weapon, and it's mostly because it's hard to die prior to being found. Bleeding out often takes time, hanging takes privacy. If I were in that situation and were trying to end things, I would probably be trying to overdose on heroin, and if that didn't work I might try to make a weapon, take drugs to numb things, and then try to bleed out. Both of those things may or may not work. I wouldn't even know how to get a needle in prison, it would probably be very hard to get and most people who use heroin there probably smoke it or take pills. Making a weapon in prison is easy, making a weapon that will sufficiently penetrate skin to cut a major artery or vein is hard. People can find sharp things sometimes, but finding something extremely hard and sharp with length is hard.

1/1000 prisoners committing suicide is a large amount of suicide, also. It probably means 1/100 attempt given how often attempts don't succeed. Real suicide attempts are not like how people die in movies, it's ugly with body fluids and noise and grossness and fear and it's awful. It's not easy to do, that's why many of us on SaSu are still alive. Prisons also often have count, where they count prisoners to make sure no one escaped. In prison you only have a window of time to attempt. It's no relaxed take the meto and xans and wait while listening to gloomy sunday shit in there.

If euthenasia were offered to prisoners as an option, probably many would take that option. Also in Europe some countries don't have horrible prisons, so it's less unbareable. In Norway, every prisoner is seen as a failure of the government: the government of Norway looks at every prisoner as someone who the government failed to properly help and so they don't treat prisoners like trash. Bur prisoners in Norway commit suicide quite often (1.5/1000) because they have more privacy and dignity so it's easier to do.

Again, this is not a suggestion to do any of these things. If you're suicidal, don't commit suicide and report yourself to the government to be "safely" impacted by cold temperatures, indignity of little clothing, constantly on lights, and complete and total isolation and deprivation of anything to think or do or feel if you feel this way in compliance with government rules. Hooray for the benevolent kind government and their emphasis on safety.

Thank you for the elaborate answer

Yeah even while being completely free ,suicide isn't easy. My most impactful attempt was when I kicked the chair and instead of hanging my neck simply ended up with a rope burn because my feet hit the floor, (the set up was faulty)

Guess that would have put me in a terrible position had I been in jail. And I guess it's much more of a pain to deal with the repercussion when trying to take your like in prison compared to trying to take your life in the psych ward which would be a serious pain and make your stay worse.

Thank you for the insight