Deprivation, importation, and prison suicide: Combined effects of institutional conditions and inmate composition

Previous research on suicide in United States prisons focused on the characteristics of inmates who commit suicide while largely ignoring the prison context surrounding these suicides. The following analyses used national data on 1,082 state prisons in the United States to examine how prison conditions (deprivation) and inmate composition (importation) predict prison suicide. Results of a negative binomial regression model showed that the number of suicides was significantly increased in supermaximum and maximum security prisons (relative to minimum), under conditions of overcrowding and violence, and in prisons where a greater proportion of inmates received mental health services. Although deprivation variables were overwhelmingly predictive of suicide, the results pointed to the combined effects of institutional conditions and inmate composition on prison suicide.