Title: Suicide and Suicide Methods in Prison: Inside Prison
Headings: Suicide Methods in Prison
Suicide Methods in Prison
Strangulation
Drug overdoses
Self-inflicted Wounds
Warning Signs

Content: Suicide and Suicide Methods in Prison: Inside Prison
Articles > Suicide Methods in Prison
Suicide Methods in Prison
by insideprison.com, May, 2006
From strangulation to head-bashing, suicides can be harrowing, if not sometimes creative. Suicide is the leading cause of death in American jails (Hayes and Rowen, 1988) and the third leading cause of death in American prisons (Bureau of Justice Statistics, 1998). Prisoners are at a much higher risk of suicides than the general public, and especially those who have been recently sentenced. See this Suicide Risk Scale used by some correctional agencies to assess suicide concerns among offenders, or this Suicide Fact Sheet for Corrections Officers. While suicide is more difficult to accomplish in prison, prisoners often employ a number of different and creative methods when attempting suicide. Without easy or legal access to drugs, weapons, or willing assistants, inmates often use painful, even tortuous, methods of ending their lives. Correctional agencies, such as the Prison Service of England and Wales, attempt to moderate inmate opportunity to commit suicide by designing cells with high security window grills, immovable plate- safe ventilators, rectangular, floor-mounted safe-skirting heater pipes, and fixed resin-clad storage units (Burrows, Brock, Hulley 2003). At many prisons suicide assessments are conducted at intake, and if suicidal tendencies are discovered, the inmate is placed in a specially-supervised ward that is periodically checked by staff no fewer than every 15 minutes. Inmates at these wards are usually only allowed hospital-like garments and a single blanket, and are sometimes placed in restraint chairs, if symptoms are severe.