Title: Inmate Suicide: Prevalence, Assessment, and Protocols -- Tripodi and Bender 7 (1): 40 -- Brief Treatment and Crisis Intervention
Headings: Brief Treatment and Crisis Intervention
Brief Treatment and Crisis Intervention
Inmate Suicide: Prevalence, Assessment, and Protocols

Content: The U.S. prison population was 258,165 in 1978, increased to 969,216 in 1996, and was over 2 million in 2005 ( Tartaro & Lester, 2005; Travis, 2005 ). Logically, the number of inmate suicides increased along with the prison population. There were 60 prison inmate suicides in 1978, and this number increased to 155 in 1995. However, this seeming increase in prison suicides appears to be due, in part, to the large increase in the prison population, as suicide rates have actually decreased from 23 suicides per 100,000 inmates in 1978 to 16 suicides per 100,000 inmates in 1995 ( Tartaro & Lester, 2005 ). Suicide rates in state prisons seem to have stabilized since 1995. In 2002, there was a minor decrease to 14 suicides for every 100,000 prison inmates, which equals approximately 280 suicides (Tartaro & Lester, 2005). Researchers have generally found that local jail suicide rates are consistently higher than state prison suicide rates ( Mumola, 2005; Tartaro & Lester, 2005 ). Jail suicide rates, however, have also declined steadily over the past two decades ( Figure 1 ).