Suicide and Stress in Prison: Implications for a Preventive Strategy

Abstract

Although suicide is a comparatively rare event it has probably attracted more interest and debate than any other single cause of death. Despite this, many of the central issues remain unanswered, a fact in itself that may explain why research into the subject continues. At an individual level the most immediate questions are why the death occurred and whether prevention was possible. When a suicide takes place in prison similar questions are asked and additional issues raised. Perhaps the most important of these is the possible influence that the experience of imprisonment may have had on the individual’s decision to end his or her life. Whatever view one holds about the functions or effectiveness of prisons in our society we cannot escape the responsibility for the consequences of imprisonment; we are under an obligation to try to understand these deaths.