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National study of jail suicides: Seven years later

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Abstract

Project staff from the National Center on Institutions and Alternatives (NCIA) gathered information from all jails (county and city) and police department lockups throughout the country regarding the incidence of jail suicides during 1985 and 1986. The study resulted in the identification of 854 jail suicides during 1985–86, with 453 occurring in 1985 and 401 in 1986. Project staff analyzed demographic data on 339 of the 1986 suicides. Subsequent comparison with NCIA's prior national research revealed that, absent minor variations, there were not any appreciable differences in jail suicide characteristics from 1979 and 1986. Most of the key characteristics of jail suicide-offense, intoxication, method/instrument, isolation, and length of incarceration-have remained virtually unchanged over time. The consistency of such findings could impact the ability to deter suicidal behavior. The utilization of these findings in the prevention of jail suicides is discussed.

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Reference notes

  1. See Lindsay M. Hayes and Barbara Kajdan,And Darkness Closes In ... A National Study of Jail Suicides. Washington, D.C.: National Center on Institutions and Alternatives, October, 1981.

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  2. Bobbie Hopes and Ruth Shaull, Jail Suicide Prevention: Effective Programs Can Save Lives,Corrections Today, December, 1986, pp. 64–70.

  3. Special Commission to Investigate Suicide in Municipal Detention Centers,Final Report—Suicides in Massachusetts Lockups, 1973–1984. Boston, Massachusetts, 1984. Unfortunately, the study's data base was distorted by the lumping of completed suicides with attempts (including simple gesture). Despite this flaw, the Massachusetts study provided interesting data on lockup suicides.

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  10. Patricia L. Hardyman, p. 2.

  11. Ibid, p. 18. Further, the national scope and size of the data base in this NCIA study precluded the same death certificate analysis as was done in Ohio. As previously stated in NCIA's 1981 National Study of Jail Suicides- “... after an exhaustive search for existing data, Project staff identified 419 suicides in jails during 1979. However, because of the problems in suicide reporting, as discussed, care must be taken in considering this number of suicides the final one. The number could be, and probably is, greater.” See Lindsay M. Hayes and Barbara Kajdan,And Darkness Closes In ... A National Study of Jail Suicides. Washington, D.C.: National Center on Institutions and Alternatives, October, 1981, p. 15.

  12. See Lindsay M. Hayes and Barbara Kajdan, pp. 34–35 and 48–49.

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  21. Ibid, p. 85.

  22. Average daily population statistics found in U.S. Department of Justice, Bureau of Justice Statistics Bulletin,Jail Inmates 1986, Washington, D.C.: Bureau of Justice Statistics, October, 1987.

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Hayes, L.M. National study of jail suicides: Seven years later. Psych Quart 60, 7–29 (1989). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01064362

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