Citation

Laishes J. Crisis 1997; 18(4): 157-162.

Affiliation

Correctional Service of Canada, Mental Health/Health Services, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.

Copyright

(Copyright © 1997, International Association for Suicide Prevention, Publisher Hogrefe Publishing)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

9529730

Abstract

This article presents descriptive statistics on the 66 suicides occurring in federal institutions in Canada over a 4-year period. Criminological and institutional factors of those who committed suicide included lengthy involvement in the criminal justice system, a greater likelihood of being incarcerated for robbery or murder, and involvement in institutional incidents of a serious nature. In addition, 62% of the inmates who committed suicide had been transferred from other institutions within 6 months prior to suicide, though 59% evidenced no indicators of suicidal intent and 44% were not considered to be depressed at the time of suicide. Family problems (29%) were the most commonly hypothesized motivating factor in the suicides, followed by denial of a request for appeal, parole, or transfer (26%), fear of other inmates (24%), and substance abuse problems (21%). Current and planned suicide prevention and intervention strategies of the Correctional Service of Canada are discussed in the context of these findings.

Language: en