Comparative suicide rates in different types of involuntary confinement

In the past decade especially, a number of studies have appeared on suicide among court-involved persons, chiefly in jail and prison remand settings, and to a lesser degree among longer-term prisoners. Confinement is not everywhere equally suicidogenic, and the types of people who find themselves confined do not represent uniformly high risk groups. This article reports on rates of completed suicides over long periods of time in two very different US institutions operated by the Massachusetts Department of Correction: the Addiction Centre and its antecedent facilities (1886-1990); and the Defective Delinquent Department (1922-1971). For perspective, the paper compares suicide rates among its two populations to rates for other very distinctive institutions operated by the Massachusetts Department of Correction, the Bridgewater State Hospital and the Massachusetts Treatment Centre for Sexually Dangerous Persons. The results are remarkable for the rarity of suicide in three distinct populations--the Addiction Center, the Defective Delinquent Department and the Treatment Center for Sexually Dangerous Persons--but considerably higher rates in the State Hospital, a population often dismissed as 'criminally insane.' The possible significance of these results for debates about 'importation' versus 'deprivation' explanations of custodial suicide is discussed.