Suicide

Extent

Not all jurisdictions in the United States report the number of suicides committed by inmates housed in prisons and jails. Further, official figures that are based on the outcomes of coroners' inquests may be inadequate and underestimate the true occurrence of deaths in custody, since not all fatalities are ruled as suicide. With these limitations in mind, based on the most recently available reported figures, suicide is the second leading cause of death in jails and the third leading cause of death in prisons throughout the United States. Suicide rates in jails and prisons are at least four times higher than those in the free population. In 1998, 176 inmates housed in state and federal correctional facilities killed themselves. In 1999, 324 inmates housed in the nation's federal and state prisons did the same. Despite this increase in raw numbers, the actual rate of deaths due to suicide in both jails and prisons has declined over time. In 1997, for jails the rate was 54 per 100,000 inmates, and for prisons the rate was 17.8 per 100,000 inmates.

In the United States, suicide rates are higher among inmates housed in control units or special housing units than those housed in the general population. Rates of suicide in state prisons also vary widely. States with smaller inmate populations and the seven jurisdictions with dual systems, where pretrial and sentenced inmates are combined, reported higher rates of suicide than elsewhere.

To put the U.S. figures in perspective, it is useful to examine suicide in other penal systems. To that end, in 1999 Greek prisons reported 112 suicides per 100,000 prisoners, while in Canadian prisons the rate was 40 suicides per 100,000. Italian prisons reported a suicide rate of 93.5 per 100,000 inmates for 1996 and 112 per 100,000 inmates for 1997. In England and Wales, for 1996 the average suicide rate was 116 per 100,000 inmates, while in Scotland in 1993 it was 128 per 100,000. Finally, in Australia in 1996 the average suicide rate was 155 per 100,000.

Gender

Canada in 1996 surveyed its remand population and found that 20.7% of the males and 30.4% of the females reported a history of suicide attempts. Those attempting suicide were likely to be suffering from a mental illness and/or have a substance abuse problem. Great Britain surveyed its inmate population in 1998 and found that 27% of the male remand prisoners and 44% of the female remand prisoners claimed to have tried killing themselves during their lifetimes. Further, 7% of male sentenced prisoners and 15% of female sentenced prisoners reported having attempted to kill themselves in the 12 months immediately preceding the interview.

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