Institutional Conditions and Prison Suicide: Conditional Effects of Deprivation and Overcrowding

• Published date: 01 December 2005
• Date: 01 December 2005
• DOI: 10.1177/0032885505282258
• Subject Matter: Articles

10.1177/0032885505282258THE PRISON JOURNAL / December 2005Huey, McNulty / PRISON SUICIDE

INSTITUTIONAL CONDITIONS

AND PRISON SUICIDE:

CONDITIONAL EFFECTS OF

DEPRIVATION AND OVERCROWDING

MEREDITH P. HUEY

THOMAS L. MCNULTY

The University of Georgia

This article uses national data on prisons in the United States to examine the effects of

deprivation, overcrowding,and their interaction on the likelihood of prison suicide.

Our central argumentis that overcrowding is a pivotal feature of prison environments

that conditions the effects of deprivation. Findings provide substantial support for

this hypothesis. Forexample, at low levels of overcrowding, minimum-security facili-

ties evidence a lower probabilityof prison suicide, but at high levels, they are as likely

to experience a suicide as their medium- and maximum-security counterparts. Theo-

retical and policy implications of the findings are discussed.

Keywords: prison suicide; deprivation; overcrowding

In the United States, suicide rates among prison inmates are higher than in

the general population and suicide accounts for more than half of all deaths in

custody (Kupers, 1999). Prison suicide is of important interest to researchers

investigating the effectsof incarceration on inmate adjustment to life in total

institutions. Prior research has focused on the individual characteristics of

inmates as explanatory variables, particularly indicators of mental health

(Anno, 1985; California Department of Corrections, 1991; Jones, 1986;

Lloyd, 1992; New York State Department of Correctional Services, 1994;

Skegg & Cox, 1991).1This focus is related to the “medicalization” of suicide,

the assumptions of which are evident in both popular stereotypes and expla-

nations of inmate suicide put forth by social scientists and policy makers.

The causes of suicide are widely assumed to reflect underlying mental and

emotional disorders, and hence public policy “seeks to change potential vic-

THE PRISON JOURNAL, Vol. 85 No. 4, December 2005 490-514

DOI: 10.1177/0032885505282258

© 2005 Sage Publications

490

tims,”with emphasis on the prediction, prevention, and treatment of suicidal

prisoners (Conrad, 1980; Hayes, 1995, 1999).

Although this research has provided the basis for suicide prediction and

prevention strategies, the exclusive focus on an individual level of explana-

tion has obscured attention to the larger institutional context in which the

event occurs (Lester & Danto, 1993). AsLiebling (1995, 1999) has noted, a

preoccupation with the individual is conceptually limited, and the individual

prediction approach has not succeeded in either understanding or prevent-

ing inmate suicide. Thus, there is a need for theory and research that moves

beyond the medicalization model toward an understanding of prison suicide

in terms of the institutional conditions under which inmates are held.

As a means to advance the literature, this article uses national data on U.S.

prisons (1990 and 1995) to evaluatethe effect of prison characteristics on the

likelihood of suicide. Whereas prior research has described the problem as

inmate suicide, we use the term prison suicide, which better captures that

individual actions are embedded in social contexts.2Specifically, we focus

on the effects of deprivation, overcrowding, and the interaction between

them on the likelihood of prison suicide. Deprivation theory predicts that

prisons in which inmates experience a greater loss of freedom, have lesser

control over daily routines, and are denied access to rehabilitative programs

will have a higher incidence of suicide. Overcrowding theory stresses the

deleterious effects of crowding on inmate adaptation to prison life,one con-

sequence of which is a greater likelihood of suicide. Central to our argument

is that overcrowding is a pivotal factor that conditions the effectsof depriva-

tion on prison suicide. This possibility has been left unexplored in prior

research, despite widely assumed detrimental repercussions of overcrowd-

ing in an era in which many prisons routinely operate over capacity (Kupers,

1999). The following sections discuss our conceptual framework in more

detail.

THEORETICAL BACKGROUND

DEPRIVATION THEORY

Deprivation of freedom has long been argued to be a primary explanation

of violence in prisons and other institutions (e.g., Ellenberger, 1971;

Suedfeld, 1977; Sykes, 1958). The classic work of Glass and Singer (1972),

supported by later research (Moos, 1976), has shown that the unpredictabil-

ity of, and lack of control over,environmental inputs are significant causes of

behavioral breakdown. Research generally supports the prediction that pris-

Huey, McNulty / PRISON SUICIDE 491