The Silent System: An Inquiry into Prisoners Who Suicide and Annotated Bibliography

The authors present an analysis of 96 suicides in 4 maximum security penitentiaries between 1959 & 1975. Demographic factors, offence background, length of confinement, stage of confinement, nature of confinement, & previous psychiatric history of these inmates are considered. Where possible this sample was compared with a sample of 1383 inmates in 4 maximum security penitentiaries in 1977. The findings were related to existing literature on inmate suicide. (KB)