Erik Ramsey’s suicide in solitary confinement highlights rising mental illness and a jump in such deaths in North Carolina prisons over the past year.
Erik Ramsey’s suicide in solitary confinement highlights rising mental illness and a jump in such deaths in North Carolina prisons over the past year.
No.
The answer is no. I don’t care what the circumstances of the story are. He was the responsibility of the state, and the state failed, likely out of negligence. It’s that simple.
The US treats prisons, by and large, like cages for wild animals. It’s hardly a surprise that the recidivism rate is what it is considering how convicted people are treated during and after incarceration here. I’m not saying all criminals are just good people wanting to be good in a bad system. There are certainly monsters out there, but I would argue most criminals are born out of circumstance rather than “bad wiring” or some sociopathy.