South Carolina Jails Face Mental Health Crisis as Inmate Suicides Rise
More than half of the individuals currently incarcerated in South Carolina jails are suffering from mental illness, yet facilities are severely lacking the resources to provide adequate treatment, contributing to a rise in inmate suicides.
Forrest Kreider, an inmate at the Charleston County Jail, repeatedly expressed feelings of depression to staff and fellow inmates for months before taking his own life in April. His father, Shawn Kreider, expressed anger that his son was “unsupervised, knowing he’d come out and said he was depressed.” According to an investigative report, Kreider had voiced feelings of helplessness and being a burden to his family just weeks before his death, and was advised by staff to focus on the present and try yoga. Another Charleston County inmate, Jordan Bell, also died by suicide in 2024 after a previous suicide attempt and making suicidal statements, even showing a deputy a makeshift rope days before his death. This situation highlights a growing concern about the mental health support available to incarcerated individuals, as a lack of timely intervention can have tragic consequences.
Data from IncacerationTransparency.Org shows over 80 inmate suicides occurred in South Carolina jails and prisons between 2015 and 2021. The state’s Department of Mental Health currently maintains a facility in Columbia with only 200 beds, and as of September 26th, 129 inmates were on the waitlist for a court-ordered competency restoration bed, with 22 waiting over 200 days. “You can have all the physical space you want in the world but if you don’t have enough medical providers trained and ready to deploy to staff those beds…you have to staff it appropriately,” explained Kelly Gothard, Director of Forensic Services Psychologist at the Department of Mental Health. The increasing demand for these services, a 67% rise in competency restoration treatment orders since the pandemic, is straining an already limited system. For more information on mental health resources, visit the National Institute of Mental Health.
Efforts are underway to address the crisis, including a 2022 state law allowing jails to provide treatment in-house. Aiken County Jail is currently the only facility utilizing this option, successfully reducing wait times. Charleston County is working towards implementing in-house competency restoration, but is currently hampered by understaffing. Officials are also exploring “medication over objection” protocols, which allow for treatment even if an inmate refuses, a practice that has shown success in reducing treatment length. The Charleston County Sheriff’s Office reported 20 inmates were awaiting bed space in Columbia as of August 14th, with some facing year-long waits. This situation underscores the need for systemic changes to improve mental healthcare access within the criminal justice system, as detailed in recent reports on mental health and criminal justice.
Officials say they are continuing to work on solutions to reduce wait times and improve mental health services for inmates, emphasizing the importance of early intervention and comprehensive support.
