The alleged crimes of financier Jeffrey Epstein shocked us all. His suicide in a federal jail shocked us again.

How could one of the most well-known people in the jail system, a man who was friends with at least two U.S. presidents, kill himself without guards realizing what was happening? The shock quickly led to conspiracy theories about what had happened.

But the truth is likely more mundane, and more disturbing, than the conspiracy theories you will find online. Those of us who work with people in the criminal justice system know that suicides are increasingly common. That’s especially true when it comes to people who are put in solitary or isolated in some other way from regular human contact.

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According to a June 2019 story in USA Today, in state and county jails, 50 people out of every 100,000 incarcerated committed suicide in 2014, the latest year for which the government has released data. That’s 2.5 times the rate of suicide in state prisons (jails usually house people accused of crimes while prisons house people convicted and sentenced) and about 3.5 times the suicide rate in the general population.

Despite hundreds of suicides in the last few years, little changed in jails throughout the country. But when Epstein committed suicide, the U.S. Prisons chief was reassigned, with U.S. Attorney General William Barr vowing to get to the bottom of what happened to Epstein.

I can save the attorney general time. The answer is actually pretty simple.

Stop isolating people who are locked up. Multiple studies have shown that people cut off from human contact are much more likely to commit suicide than those who are in the general population.

Also, focus on mental health. Many people who have been locked up have severe mental health issues that aren’t being treated. Treating mental health conditions and getting people the medications they need can lower suicides.

And finally, lock fewer people up. In Florida, this can be done by ending mandatory minimums, focusing on rehabilitation, and instituting bail reform so that people aren’t locked up for weeks and months awaiting trial stealing baby formula from a convenience store.

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There are many people in jails and prisons who are not a threat to society. Keeping them out of the system would reduce the overall prison population (freeing up funds for the mental health treatment of those who are still incarcerated) while giving people a chance to keep their jobs and provide for their families instead of being locked up.

There is nothing wrong with being horrified by everything that has occurred in the Epstein case. But there are lessons to be learned as well. Hopefully, we’re paying attention.

Shalini Goel Agarwal is senior supervising attorney for criminal justice reform for the Southern Poverty Law Center in Florida.