The Prevention of Suicide in Prison

Suicide is considered to be the leading cause of preventable death in prisons. The increasingly expansive literature examining, in ever closer detail, the various risk factors associated with a likelihood of eventual prison suicide has failed to lead to successful prevention programmes. An alternative approach is needed that seeks to understand, at the individual level, what leads a prisoner to contemplate ending their own life as the only solution to their problematic and distressing situation. This book describes how the authors developed such a conceptualisation of the vulnerable prisoner, which then informed the development and delivery of evidence-based psychological interventions for suicide prevention in prison.