James Donaldson on Mental Health – Formerly incarcerated at higher risk of suicide — even years after prison release, study finds

by Rachel Crumpler

In working with this population, Funderburg said she repeatedly sees how a person’s criminal conviction history — or as she says, the “scarlet F of felon” — affects job prospects, housing options, relationships and more.

“The barriers that [formerly incarcerated] people face and the biases that people are so anchored to in our society are certainly conditions ripe for someone to not only consider but attempt extreme measures of dealing with that, including suicide,” Funderburg said.

While Funderburg said she has not worked with a formerly incarcerated person who has died by suicide, she said she has witnessed many people face repeated challenges that can be emotionally distressing and hard to overcome. 

At some point, formerly incarcerated people hope to reach a place of stability with their needs met, Funderburg said. But when that day takes longer than anticipated — or never comes — she said she could see how someone could get to a place where they just don’t want to do it anymore.

“When you think about three years out, how many job applications have been rejected? Funderburg said. “How many times have you not been able to get the services that you need around medical care management or other things? How many family relationships have not been restored? What is your economic situation?”

During the reentry process, failures are magnified, Scott said. They can certainly lead to frustration, depression and even suicide.

For example, Scott described a low he faced when his dad took him to the DMV after his release to get a driver’s license. Since it was the height of the COVID pandemic, the DMV wasn’t offering road tests and he was told he would have to get a learner’s permit. Scott said that felt like a huge blow to regaining his autonomy. He didn’t know how he would be able to rebuild his life or get a job.

“I kind of dwelt in that co-space of anger and depression for a while. Everybody goes through that sometimes on a much more extreme level than I did,” he recalled. “It made me mad enough that it compelled me to action and so I wrote a letter to the head of the DMV, to the head of the Department of Transportation and then also to Governor Cooper and said just like, ‘How do you expect me to rebuild my life? You talk about second chances.’”

About a week later, Scott said he heard back from a DMV official and got a driver’s license. Overcoming that obstacle was euphoric, Scott said. But not all obstacles go away like this, he added.

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Need to increase support

Fitch said she hopes the study’s findings can be used to direct more targeted suicide prevention efforts, particularly toward vulnerable segments of this population. Given the long-term sustained risk of suicide years after release, Fitch emphasized that post-release suicide prevention efforts must go beyond prisons and community supervision.

“I think that’s a tempting place to say, ‘Oh, we can deliver suicide prevention services while they’re still being supervised by the criminal legal system.’ But I think it’s apparent due to the fact that suicide risk is sustained for such a long period of time that we have to think about more higher level structural issues and address the root causes of why formerly incarcerated people are so disadvantaged in society.”

Fitch said next steps to address systemic issues include housing, education and employment support, improved access to health care through Medicaid expansion and post-release enrollment programs, along with preventing a return to incarceration. 

Funderburg agrees that it will take changes in society to create an environment that allows formerly incarcerated people to move forward in their lives, and she’s encouraged to see increased momentum around reentry support. Gov. Roy Cooper issued a January executive order initiating a whole-of-government approach to improving reentry support. 

“We live in a society where the general consensus and the bias around a person with a criminal background is that you’re othered,” Funderburg said. “You’re over there. Go figure it out. 

“I think it only contributes to options that a person might explore that sort of bends in some cases toward ending it all.”