Prison Suicide: Theorising its Regulation

• In Event: Aging and Health Considerations in Corrections

Abstract

Suicides in English and Welsh prisons rose by 69% between April 2013 and 2014, despite recent strengthening of prison inspection, monitoring and regulation mechanisms. Such suicides form traumatic bereavements for prisoners' families and friends, affect fellow prisoners and custodial staff, and leave prisons open to legal challenges. Despite the importance of regulating closed penal institutions with coercive powers over detainees, there is a dearth of related scholarship. I address this gap, analyzing the relationships between prison suicide and heterogeneous penal regulators. Recent years have seen prison inspection, monitoring and regulation mechanisms multiply, with the 2008 establishment of the Independent Advisory Panel and Ministerial Council on Deaths in Custody, the 2004 expansion of the Prisons and Probation Ombudsman to investigate prison deaths, and the 2003 formation of Prison Independent Monitoring Boards. Despite this expansion and the enduring lobbying activities of voluntary organizations, suicides in English and Welsh prisons are at a 9 year high. This paper considers the complex relationships between prison suicide and regulation, and addresses a fundamental failing in the sociology of punishment: the lack of attention to regulation (Braithwaite, 2003). It considers how prison suicide is regulated, who is regulated and who regulates.

Author

• Philippa Tomczak, The University of Sheffield, England