Imprisoned whistleblower Chelsea Manning is suffering from severe mental health challenges in prison, directly related to her treatment in prison. She isn't getting the care she needs, and she recently tried to take her own life.

Chelsea is a transgender woman who, despite her gender identity being acknowledged by the world, is forced by the U.S. to serve out her sentence in an all-male maximum security prison. To be a woman imprisoned among men is a most gendered form of cruel and unusual punishment, but America's hatred and misunderstanding of trans people allows this to be the norm.

A suicide attempt is a mental health crisis, not a moral failing. But the prison system responded to Manning's recent mental health crisis by threatening to place her in indefinite solitary confinement throughout her long prison sentence.

Manning "has been systematically mistreated by the U.S. government since she was first taken into custody in 2010," says Fight for the Future, "including long stretches of solitary confinement–which the UN considers to be a form of torture–which she was subjected to for 9 months, even before she had ever been convicted, and continuing to deny her the medical treatment she needs for her gender dysphoria, which medical experts have clearly stated is the only course of treatment in which she would no longer be suicidal."

At this time, Chelsea is not receiving adequate psychological counseling, as her course of treatment is constantly irregular and therefore less effective. Having uncertainty, from day to day, regarding what medical treatment she is even going to receive is stressful in itself, and is certainly not what someone recovering from a suicide attempt should be subjected to.

Manning's support team today posted an update from the former Army on her 'spirit and well being' today, and we are sharing it in full, below.