The Louisville, Ky., corrections department was recommended earlier this year to reduce its use of isolation cells to help prevent inmate suicides. Suicides in prisons and jails across the U.S. have risen sharply over the past two years, data collected by The Wall Street Journal show, a trend that officials and inmate advocates say is driven in part by the increased isolation of inmates during the pandemic, more abuse of drugs including fentanyl and staff shortages. In the Texas prison system last year, 61 inmates took their own lives, the most in two decades. In Louisiana, 13 state prison inmates died by suicide from January 2021 through the beginning of October, more than triple the number during the prior three years combined. Kentucky prisons have seen six suicides so far in 2022, compared with one last year.

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