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                                    Solitary Confinement and Risk of Self-harm Among Jail Inmates

      

                    
          
    Solitary Confinement and Risk of Self-harm Among Jail Inmates
“Those who harm themselves while in solitary confinement may be diverted from that punitive setting to a therapeutic setting outside solitary confinement, which may provide an incentive for self-harm. The purpose of this analysis was to better understand the complex risk factors associated with self-harm and consider whether patients might be better served with innovative approaches to their behavioral issues” (p. 442). Self-harm is strongly linked to being in solitary confinement. “Inmates punished by solitary confinement were approximately 6.9 times as likely to commit acts of self-harm after we controlled for the length of jail stay, SMI [serious mental illness], age, and race/ethnicity. This association also held true for potentially fatal self-harm with a slightly lower OR [odds ratio], 6.3. It is notable that acts of self-harm often preceded the actual time spent in solitary confinement. Both SMI (OR = 7.97) and aged 18 years or younger (OR = 7.5) were also predictive of self-harm; nonetheless, the risk of self-harm and potentially fatal self-harm associated with solitary confinement was higher independent of mental illness status and age group” (p. 445).Accession Number
              027950

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  Publication Year
              2014

  Length
              6 pages

  Authors
          Fatos Kaba
          Andrea Lewis
          Sarah Glowa-Kollisch
          James Hadler
          David Lee
          Howard Alper
          Daniel Selling
          Ross MacDonald
          Angela Solimo
          Amanda Parsons
          Homer Venters

  Series
          American Journal of Public Health
Tags
    Suicide
          Jails
          New York
          Solitary confinement
          Restrictive housing Return to top

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