Preventing Suicide in Prison: The Social History of a Canadian Public Policy

• In Event: Death in Custody

Abstract

Death in prison, of sickness or by suicide, was given little attention by prison administration and policies over the time. This situation has changed greatly during the last decades and suicide prevention has become an important axis of prison practices’ reform. Our paper analyses the emergence of this public policy in Canada, at both federal and provincial level. It focuses on the constitution of the prison population as a suicidal risk population, on the debate it raised and on the avenues of action proposed and implemented by the correctional services of Canada. This paper is part of the broader theoretical questionings on new policy tools design and usage to identify, evaluate and follow-up on inmates at greatest risk of suicide. These questions relate to the sociological approaches of prison to uncover the fundamental tensions that go through these actions: How to implement caring acts with a preventive purpose in a penal institution? How can they be distinguished from the practices of strengthening supervision? Our paper traces the history of this public policy by examining scientific, political, administrative, legal and militant sources.

Authors

• Claire Guenat, University of Montreal

• Jean Bérard, University of Montreal