July 4 juillet 13:45 – 15:45
Room CMEL-102
Chair: Patrick Frottier
, University Hospital
of Psychiatry, Vienna
Suicide prevention among prisoners in custody is hampered by
the lack of funds and professional staff. In order to evaluate the prison
suicide phenomenon, a study was conducted evaluating all suicides that occurred
in Austrian prisons between 1975 and 1999 (n=250). In addition to evaluating the
number of male v. female suicides, the preferred suicide methods were studied.
We also evaluated the suicide-risk of different circumstances of custody.
Suicide rates of distinguishable, important subgroups of prisoners were
calculated. The suicide rate for prisoners on remand was highest, followed by
offenders classified as mentally ill. The rate was approximately eight times
higher than the suicide rate in Austria’s general population (1975-1997:
24.6/100,000 individuals). The suicide rate for sentenced offenders was lowest,
but still about twice the suicide rate in Austria’s general male population.
The recommendations are that psychologists or psychiatrists concentrate on the
suicide prevention of high risk offenders after screening the newly admitted
offenders for their propensity to suicide.
This presentation conveys descriptive statistics on the 66
suicides that occurred in federal institutions in Canada over a four-year
period. The research is based on investigation reports, psychological autopsy
reports and other file information. Results show that criminological and
institutional factors of those who committed suicide included lengthy
involvement in the criminal justice system, a greater likelihood of being
incarcerated for robbery or murder, and involvement in institutional incidents
of a serious nature. In addition, 62% of the inmates who committed suicide had
been transferred from other institutions within six months prior to their
suicide, although 59% evidenced no indicators of suicidal intent and 44% were
not considered to be depressed at the time of suicide. Family problems were the
most commonly hypothesized motivating factor in the suicides; followed by denial
of a request for appeal, parole, or transfer; fear of other inmate;, and
substance abuse problems. Current and planned suicide prevention and
intervention strategies of the Correctional Service of Canada are discussed in the context of
these findings.
The increase of suicides and suicide rates in custody has
raised the concerns of professional staff and prison authorities. Among the
questions asked is whether vulnerable times for suicides exist in custodial
facilities. For example, does the time of the day, the day of the week, certain
months or seasons, affect suicide rates? The results reported so far are
contradictory, if we neglect consistent findings about an excess of suicides
occurring during the night. Furthermore, it has been discussed whether clusters of suicides
occur in jails and prisons, indicating modelling phenomenon. Using a large total
survey of suicides that occurred in custody, we tried to determine whether
vulnerable times for suicides exist in jails and prisons. Is it possible to
identify certain hours, days, or months that could be useful in determining the
suicidality of inmates? Could suicide prevention be improved by the knowledge of
these vulnerable times? This study deals in
detail with the timing of completed suicides, which has merely been a
short remark in most pevious studies.
Studies of prison suicides indicate that in selected countries prison suicide rates exceed general population rates by a factor of 3 to 15. According to the most widely accepted figures in the literature, the one apparent exception to this pattern is the country with one of the world’s highest incarceration rates and largest prison populations, the United States. Although the most widely diffused studies on US prison suicides contend that the raw numbers show suicides in state and federal correctional institutions one and one–half times the suicide rate in the general US population, in fact sex, age and race adjustments to those raw numbers effectively eliminate the excess suicide mortality in US prisons. If such an exception exists, that fact has far reaching implications for suicide prevention in every country’s prison systems. If the US prison suicide rate is lower than that in other countries by comparison to general population findings, then either prison experience is very different in the US; US prisoners do not bring the same vulnerabilities to prison experience as prisoners do in other countries; US prison suicide prevention is considerably more sophisticated than that in other countries; or some combination of all three. In any case, there exist some relative immunities conferred by some factor or factors in the US experience, one or more co-efficients of preservation. The existence of such co-efficients would have extremely important theoretical and practical ramifications.
This paper examines the methodological underpinnings of apparent American exceptionalism in prison suicide rates. The paper argues that these procedures are flawed even by comparison to the promiscuous use of official statistics in studies of suicides among the general population. The weaknesses in these methodological procedures compromise the most widely accepted conclusions about suicides among US prisoners. Presenting markedly divergent data from a study of suicides in one state’s prison system, the paper considers the possible implications that such differences might have for our understanding of US prison suicides.
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