Studies show that inmate aging accelerates 10 to 15 years beyond normal rates. It is not inconceivable that most people would assume death by accelerated natural causes must be the number one cause of death of inmates across America. But it isn’t. Suicide is.
Harm to self is far above all other concerns deeply expressed by the hundreds of families with whom NIA has interacted for whatever reasons.
Only recently has the widening public opinion conversation about suicide started to include the incarcerated or the formerly incarcerated suffering prolonged consequences of having been incarcerated. The general public might finally be awakening from biases and ignorance toward the depth and breadth of suicide.
The enduring fact is that it is the responsibility of each one of us to pay more active and resolute attention to the dark realities that lead to suicide. Whether they cloud over the military veteran, the detached student, the new mother, the discarded grandparent, the homeless, the lonely coworker or the millions who have been sentenced to pay us back for mistakes and crimes.
This edition of the NIA Action Call is an appeal to learn more and spread the knowledge.
NIA Feature Column
Epstein’s death casts light upon the obscene rates of attempted suicide in our prisons and how suicide is the leading cause of death behind the razor wire. In recent years the rate of suicide in our correctional facilities has increased by 30%. Between 1-2011 to 9-2015...read more
Authur C.Z. Knight-McManus
Your tax deductible donations help the NIA to continue helping families!
After losing his teenage daughter, Laura Hope, to an accidental opiate overdose at the age of 17 ½ in 2013, Dave, alongside other GOP parents, advocated at the Georgia Capitol for the passage of one of the nation’s most comprehensive 911 Medical Amnesty and Expanded Naloxone Access laws. The legislation was signed into law on March 24, 2014.
Recently Dave has joined forces with the NIA in support of families, like his, that battle the consequences of our criminal justice system; substance abuse, mental health disorders and suicide. His 20-year-old son Wil was recently sentenced to prison.
"Wil is another casualty of the lock them up rather than divert them to treatment. I will not lose another child to ignorance."
For more information or to get help for your loved one reach out to the NIA and our network of partners today. www.joinNIA.com - info@joinNIA.com
NIA on the Move
The questions begin the moment a family gets the call that a loved one has been arrested. These questions continue throughout the journey changing with each situation that evolves. The NIA was born because of these unanswered questions.
Over time we realized that the inescapable practice of helping volumes of individuals as best as possible in these situations made Kate and a circle of close volunteers around her more and more proficient at getting to the answers, easing the tensions, and even in many cases, reversing or relaxing an institutional posture.
Often times these NIA Team interactions helped the incarcerated family member grow in the moment. It helped the other loved ones realize a best-practice course of action already traveled by peers. And perhaps more importantly, it helped an official realize that the NIA worked to resolve issues in ways that ultimately made their better-intended jobs easier.