O'Driscoll Colmán, Samuels Anthony, Zacka Mark
Justice Health, Long Bay Hospital, New South Wales, Australia.
Aust N Z J Psychiatry. 2007 Jun;41(6):519-24. doi: 10.1080/00048670701341863.
This paper reports on a review of suicides in New South Wales (NSW) prisons from 1 January 1995 to 31 December 2005 in an attempt to gain a better understanding of the nature and quality of the problem of suicide among prisoners.
All deaths in NSW prisons for the period were reviewed. Those identified as self-inflicted, with a coronial finding of death by suicide or those awaiting a coronial hearing but reported as possible death by suicide were included. A data set was collected on each case and entered into a database.
A total of 92 cases were identified as deaths by suicide in NSW prisons from 1 January 1995 to 31 December 2005, representing 41% of all deaths in custody for the period.
The rate of suicide in NSW prisons has been declining over the past 10 years, but remains approximately 10-fold that of the NSW community. Suicide was the leading cause of death among NSW inmates from 1995 to 2005. Suicide is a rare event, making its prediction a difficult task, with the prison environment a further compounding factor. This review highlights a number of factors, which appear to be common in many cases. Increased monitoring during the first week of incarceration may be an effective intervention. It is recommended that consideration be given to the length of time spent on remand and the value of custodial sentences of <or=6 months.
本文报告了对1995年1月1日至2005年12月31日新南威尔士州（NSW）监狱自杀事件的回顾，旨在更好地了解囚犯自杀问题的性质和特点。
对该期间新南威尔士州监狱内的所有死亡事件进行了回顾。包括那些被认定为自杀身亡、死因经死因裁判官裁定为自杀的案例，以及那些正在等待死因裁判官听证但被报告为可能自杀死亡的案例。针对每个案例收集了一组数据并录入数据库。
1995年1月1日至2005年12月31日期间，新南威尔士州监狱共有92例被认定为自杀死亡，占该期间所有羁押期间死亡人数的41%。
新南威尔士州监狱的自杀率在过去10年中一直在下降，但仍约为新南威尔士州社区自杀率的10倍。1995年至2005年期间，自杀是新南威尔士州囚犯的主要死因。自杀是一种罕见事件，难以预测，监狱环境更是一个复杂因素。本综述强调了一些在许多案例中似乎常见的因素。入狱第一周加强监控可能是一种有效的干预措施。建议考虑还押时间的长短以及刑期≤6个月的监禁判决的价值。
