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: Some have used pencils, as short as a few inches, to simulate a tourniquet with shoelaces. Some have tied their necks and a radiator pipe and simply continuously twisted their bodies to eventually cut off the circulation. Some inmates have successfully hanged themselves from no more than 6 inches off the floor, and from vertical pipes on the walls as opposed to horizontal pipes on the ceiling. Inmate mental health testing is essential to reduce suicide risk in prison. Photo credit: Bureau of Prisons
Asphyxiation has also been achieved by using a plastic bag to cut off air circulation. In July 2002, Australian inmate Bradley William Rapley affixed a plastic "property bag," used for holding cigarettes, around his neck with blankets and towel fragments. Others, such as a suicide in Colonie, NY, used their prison socks to tighten the same sort of bag. A Belfast prisoner in September of 2005 confounded experts by employing a "bizarre" series of knots to secure a plastic bag around his head and successfully commit suicide. John McGrath made 6 knots from laces, shirts, and towels, covered his mouth with a plastic bag, and stuffed bits and pieces of the bag up his nose.