There are nearly 2 million people incarcerated in the United States… 1,650 of them live at Pendleton Correctional Facility in Central Indiana.
Suicide rates are already much higher in prison than in the general population…Pendleton’s are the highest of any prison in the state. As a Level Three maximum security prison, sentences are long and environments are extremely restricted. Some people remain in their cells 23 hours a day. Locked down cell blocks are loud… yet deeply lonely.
Despite living in this extremely tough environment, these 25 men are committed to building community & support within Pendleton’s walls. They represent the first incarcerated individuals to ever complete the Two Day “When Conversation Turns to Suicide” training. Together we grappled with applying “Alt2Su” values to situations of extreme despair…ones that many mental health providers will never face.
They talked about Dignity… being emotionally Real… and the particular importance of validating Spirituality in moments where no other type of connection or support is available.
In the criminal legal system, the focus is on dictating to people what they “deserve”. In “Alternatives to Suicide”, we ask people what they need.
Mass incarceration remains one of the biggest threats to social justice in the United States. Participants in the training remarked that the “Alternatives to Suicide” model helped return to them some of the sense of Acceptance and Purpose that they had lost. They shared the Wildflower Alliance practice of facilitators sharing lived experience was helpful to create a non-judgmental environment around the experience of incarceration.
One man named Loomis wrote, “Thank you for showing me that shame can be beaten. Thank you for inspiring me to believe in humanity again.”
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