More Suicides

Earlier this month I wrote about a suicide which took place here. Sadly, the Sullivan County Jail, which is run by the county, and not the state, had its own problems with suicide as well...

As the local newspaper reported a few days ago, inmate Vincent Leone, 31, hung himself in his cell. The article stated that Mr. Leone was facing a 4 to 8 year prison term, but was still in custody of the county at the time of his death. While the other two suicides at the jail were a 46 year old county resident who died on June 15, and a 45 year old man from Massachusetts who was found dead on May 29. According to the jail's officials, all three allegedly hung themselves. The article added that the State Commission of Correction, which is a jail and prison watchdog agency, was investigating these incidents.

This makes four inmates who now died in Sullivan County by suicide in 2011 - three at the county jail, and one from the state prison. As a Christian, I hope that my fellow Christians on the outside will, as a result of these tragic events, see the need to support jail and prison ministry work. I would likewise hope that local churches would allow for their members to go into these places to show the inmates the love of God, and to bring them the words of life and hope through the Scriptures. For if they did this, maybe more lives could be saved from self-destruction?

D.B.

Article: Times-Herald Record, Oct. 26, 2011