Preventing Suicide in French Prisons

Cliquennois, Gaëtan

doi:10.1093/bjc/azq049

Cited by 15 publications

(6 citation statements)

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“…En Belgique, le risque de suicide en prison est 15 fois plus grand que dans la population générale (Fazel, Grann, Kling et Hawton, 2011). Les mécanismes expliquant le suicide en prison combinent le modèle d'importation, selon lequel les détenus importent leur risque accru de suicide en prison (diagnostic psychiatrique, abus d'alcool, tentatives de suicide antérieures), avec le modèle de privation, selon lequel le suicide est occasionné par la détresse liée à l'emprisonnement même (régime pénitentiaire, équité du traitement, cellule individuelle, durée de la sentence, peine à perpétuité) (Cliquennois, 2010 ;Cliquennois et Chantraine, 2009 ;Fazel et al, 2008 ;Liebling, Durie, Styles et Tait, 2005). De nombreux détenus suicidaires ont une histoire personnelle d'abus, de problèmes psychologiques et de relations sociales instables.…”

Section: Affections Neuropsychiques (Y Compris Psychiatriques)unclassified

Demandes d’euthanasie dans les prisons belges. Entre souffrance psychique, dignité humaine et peine de mort

Snacken

Devynck

Distelmans

et al. 2015

crimino

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En Belgique, l’euthanasie peut être appliquée légalement par des médecins à la demande expresse et répétée d’un patient qui se trouve dans une situation médicale sans issue et fait état d’une souffrance physique ou psychique constante et insupportable qui ne peut être apaisée et qui résulte d’une affection accidentelle ou pathologique grave et incurable. Au cours des deux dernières années, 17 demandes d’euthanasie ont été formulées par des détenus belges pour cause de souffrance psychique insupportable. Ils purgent tous une longue peine de prison ou une mesure de protection pour malades mentaux à durée indéterminée. Les auteurs examinent les questions éthiques, juridiques et criminologiques soulevées par ces demandes, car si les normes nationales et internationales garantissent aux détenus un droit à l’équivalence des soins médicaux, l’impact potentiel du contexte pénitentiaire sur leur souffrance psychique doit être pris en compte.Belgium is one of three countries in the world where euthanasia can legally be used by physicians at the explicit and repeated request of a patient who is in a hopeless medical situation and experiencing unbearable and continued physical or mental pain and suffering that cannot be relieved and is the result of a serious and incurable injury or pathological condition. Over the last two years, 17 requests for euthanasia due to unbearable mental suffering were made by inmates in Belgium. All inmates were either purging a long prison sentence or a indeterminate protection measure for mentally ill offenders. The authors examine the ethical, legal and criminological issues raised by these cases. Indeed, while both national and international human rights standards guarantee inmates the right to equal medical care, the potential impact of the prison context on their mental suffering must be taken into account.En Bélgica, la eutanasia puede ser aplicada legalmente por médicos, bajo la petición expresa y repetida de un paciente que se encuentre en una situación médica sin esperanza y que esté en estado de sufrimiento físico y psíquico constante e insoportable, que no pueda ser aliviado y que resulte de un trastorno accidental o patológico grave e incurable. Durante los dos últimos años, 17 peticiones de eutanasia fueron formuladas por detenidos belgas por causa de un sufrimiento físico insoportable. Todos ellos están pagando largas penas o tienen una medida de protección para enfermos mentales de duración indeterminada. Los autores examinan las cuestiones éticas, legales y criminológicas planteadas por estas peticiones, porque si las normes nacionales e internacionales les garantizan a los detenidos un derecho a la equivalencia de la atención médica, el impacto potencial del contexto penitenciario sobre el sufrimiento psíquico debe ser tenido en cuenta

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Section: Affections Neuropsychiques (Y Compris Psychiatriques)unclassified

Demandes d’euthanasie dans les prisons belges. Entre souffrance psychique, dignité humaine et peine de mort

Snacken

Devynck

Distelmans

et al. 2015

crimino

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“…Nonetheless, in both prisons, this punitive approach is reduced by the prisoners’ right of appeal against disciplinary decisions, 7 suicide prevention precautions (putting prisoners in solitary-confinement cells is considered as increasing the risk of suicide by the French prison rules, see Cliquennois, 2010; Cliquennois and Champetier, 2013) and inmates’ abilities to put pressure on prison governors, deputy prison governors and block chiefs by threatening riots or suicide. 8 This punitive rationale, along with professional interests also makes it difficult to incapacitate prisoners selectively based on risk in the field of disciplinary decision making.…”

Section: The Relationship Between ‘At-a-distance’ Findings and Face-to-face Evaluationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…8Sometimes, prisoner’s claim that a disciplinary punishment could provoke either their suicide or a riot (Cliquennois, 2010). …”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Which penology for decision making in French prisons?

Cliquennois

2013

Punishment & Society

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This article argues that while France's old penology remains well defended due to professional discretion and individualization of professional judgment in high security prisons (maisons centrales), a new penal trend akin to an actuarial justice is observed in detention centres. This trend consists in governing 'at a distance' a mixed population of very different prisoner types. However, a cacophony of voices in the decision-making process, discretion, professional and unions stakes, face-to-face interactions, abilities of inmates to negotiate with staff members as well as disconnections and contradictions between fields of decision making are factors that explain the failure of the new penology in the most secure prisons. These organizational and professional factors are not linked to political conditions such as the welfare state or the new management of poverty as indicated by the authors of the new penology.

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“…Statistical analyses of suicides (regarding times and places) have been produced in France since the late 1960s (Circular, 15 February 1967), with a definition of the prisoners most at risk going back to the beginning of the 1980s (Memorandum, 2 December 1980; see also Cliquennois, 2010). However, it was only in 2002 that the risk management approach became actuarial: ‘Tournier [a leading expert and scholar on French prisoner demography] wrote reports on suicides regularly during the 1980s, but they contained only descriptive statistics … there was no regression analysis’ (Senior Manager, Prison Department of Statistics).…”

Section: The Development Of Specific Actuarial Risk Management and Dementioning

confidence: 99%

A new risk management for prisoners in France: The emergence of a death-avoidance approach

Cliquennois

Champetier

2012

Theoretical Criminology

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A new punitive approach in the French prison sector has emerged as a result of the European Court of Human Rights and the French administrative courts exerting pressure on prison governors in response to the complaints made by prisoners’ families, the demands of human rights groups and the requirements of human rights protection bodies. By publicizing cases of suicide and using strategic litigation based on the right to life, human rights groups and barristers have put the prison administration under pressure. The resultant risk management policy and death-avoidance approach are not linked to the decline of the welfare state, as claimed by new penology scholars, but rather to a shared risk management thinking between the prison administration and human rights groups.

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Preventing Suicide in French Prisons

Cited by 15 publications

References 6 publications

Demandes d’euthanasie dans les prisons belges. Entre souffrance psychique, dignité humaine et peine de mort

Demandes d’euthanasie dans les prisons belges. Entre souffrance psychique, dignité humaine et peine de mort

Which penology for decision making in French prisons?

A new risk management for prisoners in France: The emergence of a death-avoidance approach

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