"Occurrence of two suicide cases including suicide by one of the accused in Delhi gang rape cases within 72 hours in March 2013 in Tihar Central Prison underscore the need to understand the factors behind committing suicide in prison and framing a comprehensive action plan to prevent such suicide in future.
While suicide is recognized as a critical problem within the jail environment, the issue of prison suicide has not received comparable attention. This monograph is aimed at to review the relevant national and international literature and conduct a data analysis of recent prison suicides so as to scrutinize the factors behind suicide and provides recommendations for the better identification and management of ‘at-risk’ prisoners as well as changing the general prison environment.
It provides some general background on suicide and identifies a number of key activities that can be used as part of a comprehensive suicide prevention programme to reduce suicide in correctional settings. Till date, little research has been done or prevention resources offered in this critical area."