Title: Deprivation, importation, and prison suicide: Combined effects of institutional conditions and inmate composition - ScienceDirect
Headings: Deprivation, importation, and prison suicide: Combined effects of institutional conditions and inmate composition
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Journal of Criminal Justice
Deprivation, importation, and prison suicide: Combined effects of institutional conditions and inmate composition ☆
Abstract
Introduction
Current study
Theoretical framework
Deprivation model
Importation model
Combined models
Data and methods
Data
Analytic Strategy
Independent variables
Results
Description of the sample
Bivariate results
Results of the negative binomial regression model
Discussion and conclusions
Acknowledgements
References

Content: 1) To what extent do prison conditions promote/restrict suicide? ( 2) In what ways do the characteristics of inmates predict suicide in prison? This study hypothesized that prisons characterized by greater levels of deprivation would be more likely to report suicides compared to prisons with lower levels of deprivation. Greater levels of deprivation would include prisons that were more “cut off from society” (i.e., rural versus urban location, and participation in work/education release programs), more “total” or secure (i.e., lower versus higher security levels), that lacked goods and services including rehabilitative programs, those that were overcrowded, and those that reported higher levels of violence (i.e., inmate assaults). This study also hypothesized that general risk factors for suicide such as demographics (gender, age, and race) and mental health would also increase suicide in prison. Based on prior research, this study hypothesized that prisons with greater proportions of White inmates, males, inmates under the age of eighteen, and prisons where a greater proportion of inmates utilized mental health services would be more likely to report suicides. This study also hypothesized that at greater levels of deprivation suicide would be more likely for these high risk groups of inmates. Relatively little is known about why suicide occurs in some prisons but not in others, and few studies have considered empirically the combination of prison features and prisoner characteristics on suicide. This study paid particular attention to the features of prison environment predictive of suicide, how the inmate composition of prisons was related to suicide, and the combined effect of prison and prisoner characteristics on the likelihood of suicide. For these reasons, this article represents an important contribution to the literature on prison suicide.