Washington Prisoners Gain Access to Crisis Hotline
As of late October 2025, prisoners incarcerated in Washington state’s prison system now have the ability to call a crisis hotline if they are experiencing suicidal thoughts. The hotline was created based on recommendations from a report after three prisoners—Mitch Hemphill, Everette D. Alonge, and Michael R. Giordano—died by suicide within a six-day period in June 2023. According to Elisabeth Kingsbury, the interim director of Washington’s Office of the Corrections Ombuds, prisoners can use the crisis line without being monitored or placed on suicide watch.
While there is limited recent data on suicide deaths in state prisons at the national level, from 2001 to 2019, the number of suicides in these facilities increased by 85%, 61% in federal prisons, and 13% in local jails, according to the National Institute of Corrections. In a sign of what could be a deepening crisis, the Correctional Association of New York, a nonprofit monitor of prison conditions, released a dashboard in August 2025 showing that the number of people who died by suicide in the New York’s prison system doubled between 2023 to 2024. The state’s suicide rate had risen, The City reported, even as the overall incarcerated population shrank.
Additional source: Walla Walla Union-Bulletin
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