Armando Cruz tied a noose around his neck and hanged himself from the ceiling of his prison cell. He left a note that ended in two chilling words.
“Remember me.”
His mother Yolanda, who was shown the note after her son's death, wants to make sure no one forgets.
“They took away my only son,” she says, her voice breaking.
Cruz killed himself on Sept. 20, 2011, during his incarceration at California State Prison in Sacramento, after a long history of mental illness. His story, first reported by the blog Solitary Watch, is an example of how the criminal justice system is ill-equipped to handle people with mental health issues. Cruz spent years in solitary confinement and died while locked in a tiny solitary cell. The rates of suicide in solitary confinement tend to be higher than in the general prison population.
Read more here.
I did a stint at CSP-Sac. Mental Health Crisis Unit a while back. They were one of the prisons who actually did have some very professional and experienced mental health personnel. I don't know about now, but even after the prisons were mandated to have mental health personnel, it was and continues to be difficult to hire people. My understanding from a colleague who works in Salinas is that it is getting better since the Feds. took over...but that is only word of mouth
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