Death and Dying in Prison in Australia: National Overview, 1980–1998

Abstract

Author discusses the role of the Australian Institute of Criminology in monitoring deaths in people in custody in Australian prisons on a national basis. She provides an overview of deaths in prison custody between 1980 and 1998, noting a shift in the cause of death of Indigenous prisoners from natural causes to self-infliction.

Suicide behind bars

“…Up to 75% of jail [11] and 50% of prison deaths [12,13,14 . ] are attributable to suicide. Up to 75% of jail [11] and 50% of prison deaths [12,13,14 . ] are attributable to suicide.…”

“…Suicides have been reported to account for threequarters of all deaths among pretrial offenders and a third of deaths among sentenced prisoners [11]. Jails and other short-term facilities typically show higher suicide rates, partly explained by the initial trauma of incarceration, coupled with inmate vulnerabilities such as mental illness, intoxication and withdrawal.…”

All-Cause and Cause-Specific Mortality Among Black and White North Carolina State Prisoners, 1995–2005

“…Although several studies have examined prisoner mortality, 14-19 few have been conducted in the US during the past twenty years. 20-22 Arguably, the most comprehensive of these more recent studies was a report by the US Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS), which assessed all deaths of state prisoners, aged 15-64 years, for the years 2001-2004.…”

Improvements to Suicide Prevention Training for Prison Staff in England and Wales

“…2002). A particularly striking finding from studies of death in custody is that suicides tend to occur very early in custody (Dalton, 1999; Shaw, Baker, Hunt, Moloney, & Appleby, 2004). In England and Wales, those who are awaiting trial, serving short sentences, or at the beginning of a longer sentence are located in local prisons; these establishments thus house people who are at an early stage in custody.…”