September is National Suicide Prevention and Awareness Month in the United States. The latest data from the Bureau of Justice Statistics shows that suicides increased 85 percent in state prisons over two decades and 61 percent in federal prisons.
The report goes up to 2019 and doesn’t yet cover pandemic numbers, but Anne Hamming with Crossroads Prison Ministries says COVID made things even harder for prisoners’ mental health.
“Through the pandemic, especially when the lockdowns were in every facility, [we saw] just despair and loneliness,” says Hamming. “‘I don’t get to leave my cell. I don’t get to have visitors. I can only communicate via mail with my family, and sometimes not even that.’ There were staffing issues, so a lot of inmates didn’t even get their mail through parts of the pandemic because COVID created staffing issues. It was just a huge compounding of issues that added to the isolation, and it was prolonged.
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SOURCE: Mission Network News, Katey Hearth
CALL TO ACTION
- Pray for prisoners to find hope in the promises of Christ!
- Ask the Lord to make Himself known to prisoners struggling with suicide ideation.
- Pray for Crossroads mentors to be encouraged as they serve God’s love to prisoners.
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