Prison Suicide in England and Wales, 1972–87

Abstract

The case notes of 295 suicides (98.3% of the total) in prisons in England and Wales between 1972 and 1987 were studied. This period has witnessed an increase in the suicide rate far in excess of the rate of rise in the prison population. The most common method of suicide was by hanging, usually at night. There was a frequent past history of psychiatric treatment and self-injury. People charged or convicted of violent or sexual offences were over-represented, as were those serving life sentences. There was an association between suicide and both guilt for the offence and being charged or convicted of a homicide offence. Some suicides occurred many years after reception into prison. Routine enquiry about previous suicide attempts must be implemented, along with better, ongoing, active communication between staff and inmates.

Accuracy and predictive value of incarcerated adults' accounts of their self-harm histories: findings froman Australian prospective data linkage study

“…The inclusion of violent offences in the model was based on the known association between violent offending and increased risk of both self-harm 48,49 and suicide. 50,51 This coding was per-formed manually based on the Australian Standard Offence Classification (Queensland Extension). 52 In light of the reported sex differences in self-harm prevalence, 6 we examined the possibility of effect modification in the adjusted model by fitting interaction terms between self-harm category at baseline and demographic variables (sex, age and Indigenous status).…”

Dual harm: an exploration of the presence and characteristics for dual violence and self-harm behaviour in prison

“…HCR20 version 3; Douglas et al, 2011). Furthermore, previous community violent offending is a noted risk factor for completed suicide in prison in many countries (Dooley, 1990;Sattar & Killias, 2005;Humber, Webb, Piper, Appleby & Shaw, 2013) with associations also reported between violence and suicide in community offenders (Sattar, 2001). Although the risks and management of harmful behaviours have been widely Dual Harm: An exploration of the presence and characteristics for dual violence and selfharm behaviour in prison.…”

Prevalence of Depression in Port Harcourt Prison

“…The provisions for the mentally disordered prisoners have also been observed to be inadequate [15]. Given the limited resources of most prisons, however, it seems doubtful whether most prisoners with these illnesses receive appropriate care [16]. Appropriate mental health interventions and care should be a priority for this population [17].…”