Single-cell and segregated
housing are established risk factors for suicide in prison. The importance of
these factors together may represent a disproportionate risk and are both
modifiable.
We tallied the housing locations and single- versus double-cell
status of the 26 inmates who committed suicide in the New Jersey Department of
Corrections (NJDOC) from 2005 through 2011, and compared the suicide rates in
these housing arrangements. All single-cell housing in the NJDOC (whether
segregated or general population) represented a higher risk of suicide than
double-cell housing in the general population. Single-cell detention was the
riskiest housing in the NJDOC, with a suicide rate that was more than 400 times
the rate of suicide in double-cell general population housing and 23 times the
rate of suicide in the prison system overall.
The odds ratios of suicide in
single-cell detention represent the highest reported in the literature in terms
of risk factors for suicide in prisoners. Apprised of this risk, the NJDOC,
assisted by its mental health vendor, University Correctional Health Care
(UCHC, of Rutgers University, formerly the University of Medicine and Dentistry
of New Jersey), adopted in 2012 a practice of default double-celling of inmates
placed in detention.
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By: Reeves R1, Tamburello A2.
- 1Dr. Reeves is Clinical Associate Professor and Dr. Tamburello is Clinical Assistant Professor, Department of Psychiatry, Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, Rutgers University, Piscataway, NJ. rusty.reeves@rutgers.edu.
- 2Dr. Reeves is Clinical Associate Professor and Dr. Tamburello is Clinical Assistant Professor, Department of Psychiatry, Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, Rutgers University, Piscataway, NJ.
- J Am Acad Psychiatry Law. 2014;42(4):484-8.
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