In our latest Cases & Concepts podcast, Senior Attorney Sam A. Harton discusses jail and prisoners’ rights, mental health and treatment while incarcerated, staffing issues, what loved ones and the public should know about what incarcerated individuals face and experience and more.

“There have been some years where suicide has been the leading cause of death inside jails throughout our country. And that’s because we over-incarcerate people suffering from mental illness and people who are suffering an acute crisis related to their mental illness. And so when our default response to mental illness is to throw them in jail or really putting those people at risk, and then the sort of second facet to that second reason why suicide is so common inside of jails is because those jails aren’t equipped to handle that task, that responsibility of being the mental health provider in their community.” – Senior Attorney Sam A. Harton

Learn more: Prisoners’ Rights

Image/Graphics/Sourcing:

Total incarceration in the United States by year (1920–2014) – November Coalition – Public Domain

Aerial view of the Cook County Jail complex – David Wilson – CC BY 2.0 – caption added

Menardcc (Menard Correctional Center) – Katherine Baskin – CC BY-SA 2.5 – caption added

“Federal Correctional Institution_Pekin_Illinois_Overhead View” – Prison Insight – CC BY 2.0 – caption added

Rise in jail deaths is especially troubling as jail populations become more rural and more female – Graph – Prison Policy Initiative

Why jails and prisons can’t recruit their way out of the understaffing crisis – Graph – Prison Policy Initiative