ID 199 625

AUTHOR.TITLE

INSTITUTIONspotis AGENCY.

POt:DATEGRANT.NOTE-AVAILA E FROM

EDRS PRICEDiSCRIPTORS

ABSTR CT

laherty, AiChaeAn-Assessment.of the National Incidence of Juveni eSuicide in Adult Jails, Lockups, And JuvenileDetention Centers.Illinois Univ.,-Urbana.Office of Juvenile Justice and Deli'nqunt PreventionDept..-of Justice), Washington

, Mfg, 8078 -JS -AX -0046

47p.; Yor related documents, see CG 015 061-063.Superintendent of Documents, U.S. Government .Printing

. officei,Washington, DC 2.0402..

HF01/PCO2 Plus Postage.'*Behavior.Patterns; Comparative Analysis';:*Correctional Institutions--; Cross Sectional Studies:Delinquency: *Delinquent aehavior;.*IncidenPrisons; Questionnaires: *Suicide; *YouthProb_ ms

Very little of:th rofessional literature on suicidedeals with suicide in jails, and virtually no r ferehoes to juvenilesuicide in adult jails exist. To determine if tfie rate of juvenile.suicide in adult jails might- be higher than that in secure? juvenile4detention Centers,, Suicidal conduct was used as the indicant of the-harmful effects of placing children in-adult jails. Th-e'Saipleincluded all, juvenile detention ,facilities, sampling of jails with anaverage daily'population '(ADE) of fewer than 250 inmates,,a fullsample of those with an ADP of more than 250, and lockupS.Questionnaires (N=913) were sent to the lockup's in the sample. Dataindicated -that, during 1978, approximately 302,662 juveniles occupiedadult jails and locktips. Results supported hypothesis that the

-.rate of suicide among juveniles held- in adUlt.jAilsand backups wassignificantly higher*than that .among children in j4venile detentioncenters and children in the general population. However, the. data did'not indicate that the suicide rate-among youth placed in juveniledetention facilities was .gree)ter than that of .children in the general..population. These results suggeSt that the policy of.incareratingchildren ire adult jails may be contributing to the relatively. high.'rateofosuicide. (RC)

********Reproduct_ons

**************

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *r * * * * * * ** **pplied by EDRS are the best that can be madefrom the original document.*************** ********* * * *

T 7 -

An .asses---rt- adult

Qf the .ilatic3haand

0w

PREPARED FORUnited States` Department of Justice,:

LAw Enforceme t.7C sistance Administration_office of Juvene ustice an&NDelinquency PreventiOn

Michael C. FlahertyResearch Assistant

This document was prepared by the Comtunify Research Forum of The Univeraityof lli nOis under grant no. 78-JS-A-0048 awarded by the .Office of JuVenileJustice and Delinquency Prevention, Law Enforcement' Assistance Administration,United States Department of Justice. Points of-view or opinions atatePin,this document are thoseof the Community Research Forum and do not necessarilyrepresent the official-position 'of.the U.S. Department of Just --e.,

Copyright 1981 0 The-Board of Trastees of the University -of Illinois

COMMUNITY RESEARCH FORUMUniversity of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign -.

August, 1980

.stile by the Superintendent of Documents, DS. Government Printing Office, Washington, D.C. 60402

JAN 2 -_6 1981-

A major.oWctiv of the children in Adult JailpFroject-was'tbe Inv vement'of: young people in.the research of issue- surrounding the practicehf jilin.ehildren. phis study on the compara-

' tiVe:ineittence of ju enile suicide is Such aneffort, having p idin ,a Valvable addition tothe literature in this area,while 'serving to.

academic requirements at the-Universityof .11linois.

The findings preSenteCin this study confkm theoften stated but undwcumented notion that Oteyate of juvenile suicide is higher in adultjails and lockups than In either separate juve-nile. detention:tentere or the general populationat risk. Further, it documents previous eAtf-mates that-.approximately,500,000dhildren areconfined in adult jails and. lockups each year.

-Significantly, the findings of this re7,search provide. support for.the enactment'ofetateand 'federal legislation which prohibitsthe detentionoT-childrem in adult jails .andlockup

James W. BrawnDirectorCommunity Research Forum

0 ents

INTRODUCTAN

THE. LITERATURE ON

The Etiology ofoSuicide in Jails' Suicide Among Challypotheses

METRODS

mSaMpling Frame'sample

Analyss Fy

ICIDE

aide

dren

FINDINGS

O TheNumber of .Juveniles in Adult Jailsand Lockups

The Incidence of Juvenile Suicid-An Approximation to LongitudinaDesignDiscussion* Policy Implications'

11 :NOTES

15 APPENDIX 1

17 APPENDIX 2-

19 BIBLIOGRAP

.;.

The author is greatly indebted to Jim Brow;,Bob Kihm, Rob Knolirek, Elizabeth Daum, .Sara

.Hooker and other members of the staff of theCommunity Research Forum of the Universitrof ,Illinois, at Urbana - Champaign.... 1.1ithout:their

,assistence, the completidt,pfthis,projectmouldmot-have,been possible. The author; is also .

greatly indebted.to thesstaff at the'Naqonal-.Center on Institutions And Alternatiyes whose.information ;aided in the verification ofdata..

In'1923, Fishman (1969 :18, n) visited 1500American jails, and he noted that very youngchildren were routinely imprisoned with adultinmates. ederal policy in the Tjnited Satesstill 'permit's .children to be ineatcerated inadult jails and lockups if .they are kept lep-rate from adult' prisoners. '--Indeed, we esti-mate that more than 213, 009julleniles wereheld in adult jails dOring.1978 hlthough.onlya very small minority of them were'chaged withfelonies./ Furthermore, from 1969 to 1979,there was an increase of 156 percent lit thenumber of persons below the age of eighteenwho were arrested (U.S. Department of Justice,Federal Bureau of Investigation,.1969:115; 1979:194). That figure implies an increasing ten-=-dency to place children in adult jells. This,

,despite the fact that the federal Juvenile Jus-tice and Delinquency Prevention Act.of-1974.

clearly called.,for a reductiOn in the use ofsecure detention for youth (Public Law, 1970.

The separation of juvenile prisoners from adult;inmates may reduce the incidence of child abuse,but It may also be condueive to juvenile suicidein adult jails. Past.research demonstratesthat facility and .staff limitations of jailsand-lockups:oftgn-resu4 in children. being heldin igaation without supervision (U.S GeneralAccounting Office, 1976; Children's DefenseFund, 976:4; James, 1975:197; Sarri, ,1974:30) .These studies imply that.placing children in-'adult jails, even when/separated from adults,is both physically and emotionally damaging tothose children.- This is quite witdentl in thefollOwing comments by investigators from theChildren's Defense Fund (1976:4).

.the conditions of most of the jailsin which we found children are absymal,',subjecting them to.cruel.and unusualpunishment through physical neglectand abuse. Solitary confinement or

-7-confinement in a danIs basement or

closet-like enclosure for he pole'child in an adult_ jails removes him or.her from Other inmates, but also fromthe attention of caretakers and canhave severe traumatic effects on an-already troubled and frightened young-

. .

st_er.

Suchobservatio s suggest that one of the tragicconsequences of this policy is the facilitationof juvenile suicide -in adult jails, and there is

__much anecdothl-data.which supports this hypo-thesis (Juvenile-Justice Digest, 1979: 10;

Wooden, 1976:151; U.S. Senate Committee on the

Judiciary 19J1:5116; Looking Glass, 1980:7 -11A higher r to of suicide among children held inadult jail and lockups,.as compared to that ofsimilar po ulations of children in secure juve-

detent on.fhcilities and the general youthpopulatiofi, would be a vivid indicator of theharmful imp ct of incarcerating juveniles inadult jails 4Yet, there,has beeri,no systematicempiricard cumeation of these claims.

The Literatu e on Suicide

the etiology of suicide

It is arguable that sociology _egan with the

ib

study of suicide-: In his cla sic attempt toestablish the legitimacy of a science of social.conduct, Durkheim (1951) purposefuliyselectedSuicide as the subject of his research becauseit seemed to be an intrinsically individual act.,By--- showing that ostensibly personal behaViorsuch as suicide, is actually Strudured by

,collective forces, he claimed some justificationfor the existence of sociology ap.asocialscience.

Many of Durkheim's prindipal findings have metwith repeated substantiation.- For example,suicide has been consistently shown to be posi-'tively correlated with age (Durkheim, 1951:172;

Dublin, 1963:22), and his assertion Ourkhei1951:209) that suicide Varies inversely with thedegree of integration or-coheslveness in socialgroups has spawned what- has .come to be known asthe status integration theory of suicide (Gibbsand Martin,, 1958; Chambliss and Steele, 196;Hagedorn and Labovitt, 1966). In keeping withDurkhelm's propositi n, the suicide rate amongpeople who-experience gh levels of social orgeographical mobility to ds to be'higher thanthe suicide rate among p rsons who are notexposed to thAse factors (Breed, 1963; Farberowet al.,k1977):4 Similarly, individual seclusioneffectively terminates social integration, andnot sitrprisingly, personal isolation has beeniteratively related to suicide (Atkinson, 1968;Stengel, 1964). L

Suicide in jails

Although the professional literature on suicideis S'implyenormoUs, very little of it is dir-ectly concerned with the occurrence-of suicidein jails, and. not even,one reference,could- be

. located which specifically examines juvenilesuicide in adult jails (Beall,. 1969; Prentice,1974)., Nonethelessmueh of the data on theproblem of adult suicide in jdils seems appli-.cable to juvenile suicide in thatsame setting..Litman (1966:16) states that the risk of suipfdeis increased when a so-called niespectabie".person is arrested for something shameful orwhen an inmate is rejected by loved ones. As

one Would expect,-isolation within the' jailsetting has also been linked to suicide (panto,

.19736 :19) as have both fear and stress amongprisohers.(Johneon,'1976:127; Gibbs, 1978a).Toph (1975:51) writes that.emJarssment, guilt;.

and self - condemnation can coalesce to producea fatal. self - hate. 4Recalling the status inte-graaon theory of suicide, Irwin's -(1(970:39)description of incarceration, s instAd

These experiences-- arrest, trial, and''conviction- threaten the structure ofhis personal life in two separatt ways.

:First, the disjointed experience ofbeing suddenly extracted from a rela-tively unfamiliar and seemingly chaotidone where the ordering of events is-completely out of his control has, ashattering impact upon his personality'structure. One's identity, one's per-sonality system, one's coherent think-ing about himself depend upon arela-tively familiar, continuous, and pre-aictable: stream of aventa. In theKafkaesqud world of the booking' room,the jail cell, the interrogation room,and the visiting room, the boundariesof the self coil se.

While this collapse is occurring theprisoner's network of social relation-ships is being torn apart.

The data-driven analysis of suicide among con-victs can be dated to over sixty ye4rs ago(Woolen, 1913Y, but most research on this topichas been c-onducted.within the last decade.Rieger (1973:141) looked at suicides in federalprisons from 1950 to 1969, and he found thatthe rate was lower than that of the generalpopulation but his anomalous results may beattributable to the use of prison inmates sincemeasurements of the suicide rate. in jails indi-cate that it is substantially higher than the

4

rate of suicide in the general p4ulation(Esparta, 1973 :34 -5; Hoff, 1973:204).2 Juve-niles are'rarely held for very long in adultjails, but suicides among adult inmates fre-quently occur soon after wrest. Heilig (1973:49) reports that eleven of seventeen suicides'transpired durigih the first day-following incar7ceration. Likewise, Fawcett and Marrs (1973:89)counted five of thirteen Suicides within thefirst week of imprisonment. Most authoritiesagreq'that cutting or hanging are the most com-mon methods for committing suicide in jail(Belga' and Russell, 1973:110; Danto, 1973a:8;Wilmotte and Plat-Mendlewicz, 1973:71). Finally,it is interesting to note, given our focus onjuvenile suicide in jails, ,that Koller andCastanos'(1969:858) discovered a-strong relationship between parental deprivation and attemptedsuicide among adult prison populations.

suicide among childrenA number of general statements can be made con-cerning the incidence of suicidal behavior amongyouth. Females make many more suicide attemptsthan males, but males are successful much morefrequently than are females (Shafii et al., 1979:229). In the sane vein, non-whites commit sui-cide much less frequently than whites .(Shafii etal., 1979:9; Toolan, 1962:719; Holingor, 1978:754). There is quite a lengthy catalogue ofprecipitating causes for suicidal conduct amongchildren, but several are cited repeatedly.Shaffer (1974:287) points out that, "The mostcommonly occurring situation before the suicidewas one in which the child knew that his parentswere to be told of some type of anti-social be-havior or loss of face," and Mulock (1955:158)

as well as Faigel (1966 :188) refer to legal pro-blms as.a cause of juvenile suicide. Parentaldeprivation as a result of divorce, rejection,or death is another frequent cause of suicidalconduce among children (Cashion, 1970; Barter etal., p1968; Finch and Pozanski, 1971; Dorpat etal.,'1965; Peck, 1968; 1970). In addition,individual isolation has often been listed as amajor source of juvenile suicide (Bakwin," 1973;Jacobs, 1971; Teicher and Jacobs, 1966; Seiden,1969). finally, and perhaps related to' the pre-ceding variables, some, authors simply mentionpsychological depression as the precipitantfor suicide among youth (Bakwin, 1966; Gould,1965; Schrut, 1964).

hypothesesWe would expect to find feeling's of isolation,_humiliation, parental deprivation, and depres-sion more widespread among youth imprisoned inadult jails than among youth in secure juveniledetention centers. This expectation is basedupon the aforementioned federal policy of sep-arating juveniles from adult, prisoners (whichoften results in isolation for the sole childin an adult jail), as well as the chronicfacility and staff limitations of adult jailBy the same token,'those feelings are likelyto be more prevalent among youth held in juve-.nile detention facilities than among children illthe general population of the United States. In

light of the foregoing, it is hypothesized thatthe rate of juvenile suicide in adult jailer ishigher than that of secure juvenile detentioncenters, and in turn, that the rate of suicidein juvenile detention tacilities-is higher than

that among youth in the general population.Since we are interested in measuring the harmfuleffects of placing children in adult jails,suicidal conduct was chosen as the indicator -

forthoge effects because "selfinflicted injury,isan act that typically requires medical atten-tion," and for that reason, "it is more 4likely to

-The 'reflectedtin institutional records" than areother phenomena such as sexual or physicalassaults (Gibbe, 1978bi23).

Methods

sampling-frame

,Our sample is drawn from the Criminal JusticeAgency List which is a complete compilation ofa institutions in America that are involvedin any facet of the criminal jusciice process(U.SI DeOartment of Commerce, 1978a). Included

on that list are all adult jails, lockups, andjuvenile detention centers in the United Statesand our sampling frame comprises that subsetof the inventory. The entries on the list ofthose facilities with a-detention capability isderived from an updated version Of the NationalJail Census of 1970 (U.S. Department of Justice,1971). The sampling frame, therefore, consistsof names, addresses, telephone numbers, andother information on 3,493 jails, 13,383and 372 juvenile detention centers.

sampleSince the number of juvenile getention facili7ties is not large, all of those institutionswere included in our sample. °However, because,financial considerations precluded the inclusion,of all adult jails in our sample, we drew atwenty percent random Sample of.the jails whichhave an average daily population of fewsilthan250 inmates, and a one hundred percent sampleof jails which have an avetage'daily population93f 250 prisoners or more. The representative-nesS of our sample is accomplfshed by statistic-ally weighting the re'spons from the under-esampled strata (KiSh, 1965:7 . \ Obviously,

these procedures eliminate sapling error withreference to juvenile deten _on facilitis andlarge jails. A random sam e of 6.8% wasdrawn from the lockups on the Criminal JusticeAgency List.

Subsequenteto, pretesting the instrument, 1158questionnaires were mailed to 372 juveniledetention centers and 786 jails.3 After revi-

sing the.--instrument, 913 questionnaires weremail,c6to the lockups in our sample.4 Second

a third mailings were followed by telephonecalls to the noresponding institutions, We

have received usable responses from 97.6% of the,jUvenile' detentiou. facilities, 81.3% of thejails, and 64.0% of the lockups,in our samplefor an overall response rate of 77.4%

analysisSuicide rates are ordinarily calculated per100,000 persons at risk since the actual numberof suicides in any population is usually a very

small number. If the proportion of people whocommit suicide is symbolized with a P and thetotal.riumber of people in the population atrisk is represented by an N, then their productNP.is typically such an extreme value that thebinomialapproximation to the normal distribu-tion cavot be assumed (Siegel, 1956:40). Forthe purpose of statistical inference, thePoisson Distribution is appropriate in thiskind of situation (Blalock, 1972:172: Loetherand McTavish, 1974:109n). In other words, thePoisson Distribution allows one to model theprobabilities associated with relatively rareevents. The probability distribution of aPoisson variable is given by Equation Number 1when the parameter is known:

3u x(1) p (x;LE ) _ e u x - 0,

x !

where u is the known parameter, e is the cooscant 2.71828 (the base of 'natural logarithms),and x is the observed frequency it the sampledata (Blalock, 1972174. GIvenknowledge ofthe relevant parameter and_the observed static-tic, we can avoid tedious computations by ,using,tabulated Poisson probability sums in order totest hypotheses (Alorramowitz and Stegun, 1965:9/9)When the parameter is unknown, we can useEquation Number 2-to calculate the statist .isignificance of the difference between twoPoisson values:

f4_(x

1(x.2+ 5)

xi x2

VW-

whcie and k te the JLiV,_2 ,a

values _row.lee 1968;182), Since tt

yields a corrected approximation to the unitnormal deviate, the significance of the differ-ence is tabulated in any table of Z scores.

4the number of juvenilesin adult jails and lockups

Findings

There is great variation in the estimates of theannual number of children who are held in adultjails and lockups. Perhaps the highest projec-tion is that ofarri (1974:5) who'suggess that500,000 juveniles are incarcerated in adult jailsand lockups each year. In contrast, Poulin andhis colleagues (1979:11) estimate that I20,000children annually are held ii4l0jails Only. Nei-ther-of these projections, however, is based onprimary research. Rather, they are based-'on

snytheses of secondary sonrces. Lowell au1d

McNabb (1980:29) conducted a nationwide survey,and they project a One day count of 40611'sen-tenced'persons Wow the/age of eighteen injails. Unfortunately, part from ignoring themany unsentenced juveniles in adult jails, their

study had a response rate of Only 51%, and theyadmit that their data seriously underestimatethe parameter in large urban areas (Lowell andMcNabb, 1980:27-8).

We have documented 383,328 children in securejuvenile detention centers during 1978. Givenour'response rate, we estimate-the actual totaltosbe approximately 392, 662. We have documen-ted 170,714 juveniles in adult jails. Again,

',given our response rat*, we estimate the actualtotal to be 213, 647. In addition, we havedocubented 11,592 juveniles in adult lockups.Once again, given our response rate, we estimatethe actual number to be 266,261. That yieldsan overall estimate of 479,908 persons below theage of eighteen who'are held for any length oftime in an adult jail or lockup durihg 1978.All of these projections are based upon linearextrapolation from our data.

the incidence of twenile suicideTable 1 presents the suicide rates for childrenin adult jails, lockups, and juvenile detentioncenters during 1978, and the suicide rate amongyouth in the general population of the UnitedStates during 1977. Information on the generalpopulation from 1977 is used because finalmortality data for 1978 has 'not, as yet, bdencomputed by the National Center on HealthStatistics (U.S. Department of Health, Education,and Welfare, 1979). The numbei of suicidesamong children in the general population dnifng1977 is obtained from unpublished data at theNational Center for Heal.,th Statistics (U.SDepartment of Health, Education, and Welfar,

1980,, and the number of children in the generalpopulation of the United States during 1977 isavailable in published form from the Bureau ofCensers (U.S. Department of Commerce, 1980).

TABLE 1. SUICIDE RATES FOR CHILDREN IN ADULTJAILS, LOCKUPS, AND JUVENILE DETENTION 41 ,

CENTERS DURING 1978, AND CHILDREN INTHE GENERAL POPULATION OF THE UNITEDSTATES DURING 1977

Popular

Children in

Number of Number of Number ofChildren Suicides Suicides per

100,000 '

Children

Adult Jails 110,04 dlduring 1978

Children inAdult Lock-ups during1978

Children inJuvenile Detention Cen-ters during1978

Children inthe GeneralPopulation orthe United Statesduring 197

11,5(18

ibi2J0

12.

8.6

The pate of uicide ar76ngizliae Iles in adult

Jails during 1978 is$12.3 per 100,000 which is4.6 times larger than th suicide rate .of 2.7per 100,000 among youth in the general !pOlnilation during 1977. From tabulated sums of Poissonprobability values (Abramowitz and Stegun, 1965:979), we find that the difference between thosetwo suicide rates is statistically significantwith p.00003. The rite of suicide among Juve-niles in adult lockups is 8.6 per 100,000 whichis more than three times Zarger than the rate

.7 among children in the general,populand that difference is also statistically sig-nificant with p4(.004., Unexpectedly, the suiciderate among children in juvenile detention facili-ties is onlr 1.6 per 100,000, which is lower thanthat 6f the-general population. Using a criticalvalue of .05, this difference is not statisti-cally significant with p.145. The suicide rateof juveniles in adult, jails is almost 7,7 times

cnfr than that of juvenile detdntion centers,that difference is statistically significantwith p).005. Similarly, the suicide rate

among juveniles in adult lockups is more thaftfive times larger than that sof juvenile attentionfacilities, and that difference is also static

'tidally significant/ with p.03.

* The number of cUtildren in the general popula-tion of the United States durin1977 repre-sents all persons between the ages of 5 and17, while data for children in adult jails,lockups, and juvenile detention centers duty,,__1978 represent persona below the age of 18.

an approximationto longitudinal design. wAll records of juvenile detention are eithersealed or destroyed when the individual becomesan adult. This fact, coupled with the anti-cipated difficulty in completing our question-naire, ,led us to employ a cross-sectional designwhen a longitudinal or time-series design wouldhave been preferable. In 8rder to contextualizethe 1978 data, suicide rate have been calculatedfor children in the general population of theUnited States from 1968 to 1977, and this infermation appears in Table 2. The relevant datawere obtained from the National Center for.

TABLE 2. SUICIDE RATES FOR CHILDREN IN THhGENERAL POPULATION OF THE. UNITED

STATES FROM 1968 TO 177.*

Year

1977

1976-

1975

1914'1973

1972197119701969

1970

Number of Children Suicidea

49,008,000 1313

49,851,000 1097

50,368,000 1126

50,949,000 1061

51,480,000 1013

52,012,000 950

52,383,000 908

52,545,000 806

52,386,00051,976,000 668

Su Cide Kate5i 100,000

2./

2.2

2.2

2.1

2.01.8

t,/

1.5

1.5

1.3

* e term "children"Th refers to pc ._ in betweenthe ages of 5 and 17 years old.

11

Health Statistics (U.S. Department of Health,Education, and Welfare, 1980) and the Bureau ofCensus (U.S. Department of Commercei 1974, 1978b,1980). Apart froth statistical variation,- thereappears to be a trend toward an increasing rateof suicide among youth in the general population,and the 1977 figure of 2.7 per 100,000 is thehighest value in Table 2. Yet, the suiciderates for juveniles in adult jails and lockupsduring 1978 are both considerably higher thanthat value, and statistically significantdifferences remain even if the value of 2./ isarbitrarily raised to 4.0 per 100,000.

discussionThere is support fer our hypothesis that therate of suicide among children held in adultjails and lockups is significantly higher-thanthat among children in juvenile detention cen-ters and children in the general population ofthe United Stat ,,i .

I

However, the data do neLindicate that (le suicide rate afong, youthplaCed in juvenile, detention facilities isgreater than that of children in the generalpopulation. Several-comments are pertinent tothese observations. First, bear in mind thateven the confidential admisioa of the occur=rence of a juvenile suicide in an institutionalsetting is deeply eMbarrassing. To the extentthat our data are characterized by responsebias, such bias would, in all likelihood, cantribute to an underestimate of the suicide rat._in jail. and lockups. Second, the data indiLate that the average length of st.y fol. child...In jails is approximately seven days while theaverage ie[4,,th of stay in lockups is less thantwo day,,. in contrast= tie average length of

'stay in ,lockups is less than two. 4ays.erast, the .average length of stay-in juvehiledetention .facilities.is seventeen days,'Iand thesuicide rate for-children in ;he general popu-lation is calculated Foy an entire year or 365days. In Other Wtords,..children in addlt jiilsA

and' lockups kill themselvea more freqdently thando children in juvenile detention facilitiesand childen.iu the general population despite.the fact that children in jails and lockups haveless time in which to commit suicide: _Third,one must also bear in mind that it is moredifficult to commit suicide in jails and lockupsthan it 'is in the-senerarpopulation simply because the techniques at qneiS dispodal are muchmore limited. Together,-these considerationsimply that the-problem of juvenile suicide in,adult jails and locisoips may well be even more-serioue than is suggested, by our data per.se.Fourth, the validity of our primary'hypothesis isbolstered by the'fact that seventeen of the sui-cides occurred despite the, fact that .in thesecases sight and sound separation had been acorn*plished. Finally; the loWil'rate of suicide amongchildrenAn juvenile detention centers may be,attributable to the greater supervision which isavailable at those facilities, and to the parti-cipation by juveniles in the ongoing-youth acti-,vities at those facilities as opposed to theisolation which they would often confront inadult jails and lockups.'.

policy implications.4These data suggest that the policy of incarcer-acing children in adult jails and lockups may be-contributing to a relatively high irate of *tide_

among those 'children. Further, in our datai;eleven'of twenty-,twO children who killed them-

.

selves whilein jails and lockups had-not ooMmit-ted a felony, which implies that: many of those'juveniles who are.imprisoned'-in jails nese littlethreat to their comMunities. Thede- findings aleoindicate that the' problem'of juvenile suicide isno more acute in juvenile detention centers than,it is in the general population.

As noted earlier in this report, environmentaland staffing limitations are common situations inadult jails and -lockups. The effects ofr such liv-.

, ins Conditions worsen when isolation also occurs.This study has determined that. the suicide ratefor juveniles hele in adult.jails is about 4.6times greater (12.3 per 100,000) than the suiciderate among_youth in the'general population (2.6 .

Per 100,000), This high rate cannot be'attribu--ted to secure confinement alone pince thd suiciderate in separate juvenile detention facilitiesis well below that of the-general youth popula-

-tion. Given this disparity in secure settings,it must be assumed that the high rate of juve-nile suicides is attributable to the efivironmen--tat and staffing conditions present inmostadult jails and lockups.

-The important point here is that nearly 500,00pjuveniles experienced these detrimental condil,tions each; year. ,rf the":physical and emotionalwell-being of juvenile offenders is to bematter of condern, every effort must-be'made toprohibit the jailing.of juveniles. The Adentifi-cation of these detrimental conditions should bethe-subject of continued investigation.

A

Notes

1. In this report, the Word "juveniles" is noused as a reference to the1ortal or legal,status of an individual, but rather as an infomal and generic term which denotes someone whois below the age of eighteen. The judicialconcept "juveniles" is too imprecise for theRurpobe of operatiobalizetion because each statehas jurisdiction over the legal definition ofthe age limits for juv nile status,- and: withinStates, that status cs_ even vary by sex ornature of offense (U.S'. Department of Justice,1973 :2). However, there is evidence which in-dicates that'some ofthh data reflect statefatatUtell with regard.to:the judicial:definitionsof juvenile status rather than the requesteddefinition of persons below the age of eighteen.To the extent that this is true, the data onadult .jails underestimate parameters such as thenumber of juvenile suicides since state statutesnever define a juvenile above the age-of seven

13

teen'. In view of this fact, theluestionnaireWhich.was mailed to lockups was Modified-so chitit would conform to state itatutes in, the defi-nition of juveniles. (See'Appendices 1 and 2,

items 1 and 2 respectively)

2. .Fedetal or state prisons typically hold in-mates for over one year, while jails ordinarilyincarcerate prisoners for less than. one year,and lockups detain _inmates for less than forty-eight hours. Moreover,-lockups cannot bookprisoners on the premises.

3. The items which comprise the,questionnairethat waa sent.to jails and juvenile detentioncenters are listed in Appendix 1.

4. The items which comprise the questionnairethat was sent to lockups are listed in Appendix2.

Appendix

Item on the Ja

St.21.1211121-Et

j. how many ndividuals below the age of 18

e held in your institution for any length of

_e during 978?

,2. Whiek the following statements best de,-:.scribes h w individuals beloW the ageof 18 areusually _e_d in your institution?.

- In viduals.below fhe age of 18 are put into

s with adult prisoners.- Individuals below the age of 18 are put into

which have no other otcup nts but

whic are within sight or soun4 contact

of adult,prisonera.- individuals below the age of 18 are put into'.

cells with other juveniles or cells whichare within sight or sound contact of other

Au riles.- Jndividualabelow.the age of 18 are put into'cells which haVe no other occupants. and.whio _a.i'not withih sight orb sound contact

;pf,A_ o er inmate.Other, p ease app-bify).

Would.sig- t and sound separation of juvenileand adult prisoners:be-Achieved inyour institutioh if trusties were'not suPerVising juvenile'lnmates? .

4. .Apart from the time in their cells, arethere situations such as admissions,-dinihg,recreation, etc., when juvenile inmates comeinto contact with adult prisone

'5. What was the highest number of juvenilesheld in your institution on any one day during1978?

6. Dbes your institution ever hold juvertileafrom counties other than your own county?.,

7, What was the average length of stay forjuveniles 'in your institution during 1978?

8. What is the official. maximum capacity forjuveniles in your institution?

9. As ynu khow, an "attempted suicide? is onein whichan indiyidualtiieb to take his or herown life but does not succeed. How'many indl-vidualt'below the ageof'18-attempted suicidein your instItution.during 19787

1Q. How many of those individuals were males?

11. How many of those individuals were of whiteracial'background?

, 13. .What was the total,number of days that' eachOrie'of those individuals had beerf held for prior

-to his/her 'attempted. suicide?

14. Which of the following statements best de-scribes ,how each, one of those, individuals washeld in your institution at the time he or sheattempted Suicide?

The indiVidnal was in acell'Aidthadult.prisoners.

- ThSAndividual was IA a cell' with no other,occupants but which was within sight or.

sound COntadt'of adult' AridionersThe individual1waajuveniles or ina.cell. which was withinsight or sound contact of. otherInVenilea.The individual was in a cell Which',had.noother occupants and not within.sight or sound contact of any other 'mate.Other' please specify).

15'. As yon-know,'s committe_ suicide" is one in,which an individual succeeds in taking his orher own life.' How many individuals, below theage of 18'committed suicide in your institution.during 1978?

16. Hoeg many of thosa indiViduals ere ales?

17. How many of those individuals were of whitefacial background?.

18. How many of those individuals had beencharged with felonies?

',or).L.0,

19. What was the total number of days that eachone of tfiose individuals had been held for pribr.to:his/her committed suicide?

20. Which of the following statements best,des-,,. cribas bow7each one of those individuals was.held in your institution'at the time he. or shecommitted suicide? (Write the number of tom-Amitted'snicides in the -spaces below.)

16

The individual was in a cell with adultprisoners; i

, .

The individual was in a cell with no. otheroccupahts but which was within sight arSound contact of adult prisoners.,

- The individual was in a cell with otherjuvenile's or a cell which was within sightor sound contact of other- juveniles..The individual was in a cell with no other'occupants and which was not within sight orsound contact of any other inmate.

- Other (Please specify)._

Juvenile are pu$ into cells, with'ofherailesor cells,which are within sight drsound contact of other juveniles.

- Juveniles are put into cells which-hate noother occupants and which Are net idthin'sight or sound contact of any ether inmate.

- Other (please specify).

4. As you know, an "attempted suicide" is onein which an individual tries to-take his,ox 'herlife but does not succeed. How ny.jnvenileaattempted suicide in your facil during-1978'7

Appendix 2Items on tie lockup__ ,estionnaire

1. Did y'jtr office ,place any individual (juve-nile or adult) in a locked detenticin cell during1978?.

2. How many juveniles were plaCed in a lockeddetention cell in your facility for any length.:of time during 1978?

3. Which of the following statements bestdescribes how juveniles are usually held whenplaced in'a locked detention cell in yourfacility?

- Juveniles e put into cells with __nitprisoners.

- Juveniles are pUt into cells which have noother occupants but which are within sightor sound contact of adult prisoners,

5. What. was the.total.number of hours'that ean.one of those individuals had been held, prior to:his/her attempted suicide?

0. As you know, a "committed suicide" is one inwhich an individual succeeds in taking his orher own life. How many juveniles committed'suicide in your facility during 1978?

7. How many of those individuals hAd beencharged with felonies?

Se What was the total number of hours that eachone of those individuals had -been held prior to

his/her suicide?

9. Which of the folloWing statements best des-.cribes how each one of those individuals was

--held in your facility at the time he or shecommitted suicide? (Write the number. of commit-

ted suicides in the spacest below.)

- The individual was in a cell with adultprisoners.

- The individual was in a cell with no otheroccupants but which was within sight or

17__

sound contact of- !cttilt. proThe individual was 's 101 otherjuveniles or :a_ cell. Which was within sight-or -sound contact of other juveniles.

- The individual was in a cell with no otheroccupants and which was not within sight 'orsound contact of any other 'inmate.

- Other (please specify):

Journal of Psychiatry 116 40

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