Association of Overcrowding and Turnover with Self-Harm in a Swiss Pre-Trial Prison

Stéphanie Baggio, Laurent Gétaz, Nguyen Toan Tran, Nicolas Peigné, Komal Chacowry Pala, Diane Golay, Patrick Heller, Patrick Bodenmann and Hans Wolff
Additional contact information
Stéphanie Baggio: Division of Prison Health, Geneva University Hospitals & University of Geneva, 1225 Geneva, Switzerland
Laurent Gétaz: Division of Prison Health, Geneva University Hospitals & University of Geneva, 1225 Geneva, Switzerland
Nguyen Toan Tran: Division of Prison Health, Geneva University Hospitals & University of Geneva, 1225 Geneva, Switzerland
Nicolas Peigné: Division of Prison Health, Geneva University Hospitals & University of Geneva, 1225 Geneva, Switzerland
Komal Chacowry Pala: Division of Prison Health, Geneva University Hospitals & University of Geneva, 1225 Geneva, Switzerland
Diane Golay: Division of Prison Health, Geneva University Hospitals & University of Geneva, 1225 Geneva, Switzerland
Patrick Heller: Division of Prison Health, Geneva University Hospitals & University of Geneva, 1225 Geneva, Switzerland
Patrick Bodenmann: Vulnerable Population Center, Department of Ambulatory Care and Community Medicine, Lausanne University Hospital & University of Lausanne, 1011 Lausanne, Switzerland
Hans Wolff: Division of Prison Health, Geneva University Hospitals & University of Geneva, 1225 Geneva, Switzerland

IJERPH, 2018, vol. 15, issue 4, 1-6

Abstract: Self-harm is a common issue in detention and includes both suicidal and non-suicidal behaviours. Beyond well-known individual risk factors, institutional factors such as overcrowding (i.e., when the prison population exceeds its capacity) and turnover (i.e., the rate at which the prison population is renewed), may also increase the risk of self-harm. However, these factors are understudied or previous studies reported inconsistent findings. This study investigated the association of self-harm with overcrowding and turnover in the largest pre-trial Swiss prison in Geneva. Data were collected yearly between 2011 and 2017. Measures included self-harm (all kinds of self-injuring acts requiring medical attention, including self-strangulations and self-hangings). We performed meta-regressions to analyse the relationships between self-harm and institutional factors. Self-harm events were frequent, with a prevalence estimate of 26.4%. Overcrowding and turnover were high (average occupation rate of 177% and average turnover of 73%, respectively). Overcrowding and turnover were significantly associated with self-harm (respectively b = 0.068, p < 0.001 and (b = 1.257, p < 0.001). In both cases, self-harm was higher when overcrowding and turnover increased. Overcrowding and turnover raise important human rights concerns and have damaging effects on the health of people living in detention. Identification of and care for this vulnerable population at risk of self-harm are needed and institutional factors should be addressed.

Keywords: custody; health care; prevention; prisoners; suicide (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/15/4/601/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/15/4/601/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:15:y:2018:i:4:p:601-:d:138182

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().