Self-harm in prison: Manipulators can also be suicide attempters

Dear, Greg E.; Thomson, Donald M.; Hills, Adelma M.

doi:10.1037/e564762006-002

Cited by 39 publications

(51 citation statements)

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“…This group experiences comorbidity with schizophrenia or bipolar disorder, and they may engage in self-injury during bouts of hallucinations and other sensory impairments. As Dear, Thomson and Hills (2000) state, "although these prisoners were seeking to improve their circumstances, they seemed prepared to die in the process" (p. 172). This represents a subset of very extreme SIB-prisoners.…”

Section: Phenomenological Inquiries With Incarcerated Sib Populationsmentioning

confidence: 97%

The Meaning of the Cut: A Phenomenological Inquiry into Prisoner Self-injury

Smith¹

2013

Justice Quarterly

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Self-injurious behaviors (SIBs) represent a significant threat to the morbidity and mortality of vulnerable prisoners, and are now a ubiquitous aspect of the correctional system. Currently, correctional staff receive little specific training or appropriate guidance from national standards to respond to this dangerous behavior. To date, the overwhelming majority of empirical research on self-injury in prison has relied upon the viewpoint of academicians and/or correctional staff. This select viewpoint has reduced the perspective of the self-injuring prisoner to a passive role. In response, we utilized a qualitative methodology to access the perspectives of 20 highly recidivistic self-injuring inmates housed in three South Carolina prison. Interpretative phenomenological analysis was employed to identify fundamental themes underlying SIBs. Findings indicate that the meaning of self-injury is rooted in traumatic family milieus with the behavior becoming a fixed coping mechanism over time. Respondents perceived stress and control as dominant themes, though mental illness, physiological responses, and negative emotional states were also important. While desistance from self-injury appears unlikely, key policy solutions are presented in accordance with these inmate perspectives. This phenomenological inquiry suggests that efforts to understand these inmate "accounts" and personal history serve as a potentially efficacious means of understanding SIBs occurring in prison.Keywords self-injurious behaviors; qualitative interviews; prison inmate; phenomenology; mental illness On 9 February 2010 at approximately 6:40 pm the following incident occurred in Dorm C in Heartwood Prison. Officer Johnson was conducting a security check. Officer Johnson observed Inmate Harold Owens bleeding from his left arm and left leg. First responders were called and arrived at Hayden P. Smith is an assistant professor of criminology & criminal justice at the University of South Carolina. His principal focus of study is the intersection of the criminal justice and public health systems. This includes studies on self-injurious behaviors by inmates, mental health needs of correctional populations, jail diversion, national standards of care, and premature morbidity and mortality associated with reentry. Correspondence to:

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Section: Phenomenological Inquiries With Incarcerated Sib Populationsmentioning

confidence: 97%

The Meaning of the Cut: A Phenomenological Inquiry into Prisoner Self-injury

Smith¹

2013

Justice Quarterly

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“…While designed primarily for use in the community and hospital settings, it has also been widely used in prisons [32][33][34].…”

Section: Suicidal Intentmentioning

confidence: 99%

Studying survivors of near-lethal suicide attempts as a proxy for completed suicide in prisons

Rivlin

Fazel

Marzano

et al. 2012

Forensic Science International

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“…The observation that a prisoner is engaging in SIB for manipulative reasons is therefore rather common and perhaps due in part to assumptions of whether a prisoner is also considered a ''hardcore'' career criminal (Groves, 2004;Johnson, 1973). Even when it is known that self-injurers are noted to distinguish SIB from instances of genuine suicidal intent (Herpetz, 1995;Pattison & Kahan, 1983;Walsh & Rosen, 1988), entertaining the possibility that any degree of mutual exclusivity is assumed to exist between genuine suicidal ideation=intent=plan and manipulative motive is dangerous practice (Dera et al, 2000;Franklin, 1988).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 97%

The Association of Administrative Segregation Placement and Other Risk Factors with the Self-Injury-Free Time of Male Prisoners

Lanes¹

2009

Journal of Offender Rehabilitation

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The current study examined the relationship between risk factors for prisoner self-injurious behavior (SIB) and the amount of time male prisoners function without engaging in SIB (SIB-free time), and obtained estimates of SIB-free time for selected SIB prisoner subgroups dependent on their housing status. Conditional Cox regression analysis revealed that a risk model consisting of developmental, mental health=health, legal=offense, and institutional functioning factors accounted for 56% of the difference in risk between SIB (n ¼ 132) and non-SIB male prisoners (n ¼ 132) who were matched according to security level and conviction prefix, estimating a SIB risk probability of .50 at !36 months of SIB-free time. Survival analyses revealed that administrative segregation placement drastically reduced SIB-free periods for certain SIB prisoner subgroups. Some potential practice implications for correctional mental health and security=classification professionals and directions for future research are discussed.

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Self-harm in prison: Manipulators can also be suicide attempters

Cited by 39 publications

References 0 publications

The Meaning of the Cut: A Phenomenological Inquiry into Prisoner Self-injury

The Meaning of the Cut: A Phenomenological Inquiry into Prisoner Self-injury

Studying survivors of near-lethal suicide attempts as a proxy for completed suicide in prisons

The Association of Administrative Segregation Placement and Other Risk Factors with the Self-Injury-Free Time of Male Prisoners

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