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Suicide is the leading cause of death in America's jails and the rate of suicide is nearly three times higher in jails than in prisons or the general public. Fatal suicides represent a small proportion of individuals who threaten or attempt suicide while incarcerated, or otherwise engage in serious self-harm. Yet, there is little research to date on the risk factors for jail detainees engaging in suicidal and/or self-harm behavior while incarcerated. Using logistic regression, we examine the risks factors for attempting and threatening suicide and/or self-harm during incarceration using a mixed-sex sample of 736 individuals incarcerated in a large metropolitan jail in the Midwest using the lens of the Interpersonal Theory of Suicide (ITS). We found support for ITS, as individuals with higher perceived burdensomeness and thwarted belongingness were more likely to attempt and/or threaten suicide and self-harm. Among the measures that proxied the belongingness-burdensomeness construct – mental health issues, drug dependence, direct and indirect victimization in jail, and psychological distress – were all associated with higher odds of threatening or attempting suicide and self-harm. We discuss the need for future research on suicidality and serious self-harm in jail, as well as recommendations for managing those most at-risk. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: To examine the effect of prison officials' decisions to remove good time credits in response to prison rule violations on subsequent inmate misbehavior.Methods: Data pertaining to all inmates admitted to prison in a Midwestern state during 2009 who committed a rule violation were examined using two different methods, a multi-level analysis of a longitudinal person-period dataset and a comparison of the prison misconduct rates for inmates who lost good time during their first year of confinement to those for a matched control group of inmates who did not lose good time.Results: The multi-level longitudinal analysis revealed that inmates who lost good time in response to a prison rule violation were typically less likely to commit misconduct in the periods after they lost good time relative to periods before inmates lost good time, but the size of the observed effects were small. For the most part, the analyses of the matched sample of inmates who lost good time during their first year of confinement versus those inmates who did not lose good time revealed that losing good time did not affect inmates' rates of subsequent misconduct.Conclusions: Findings suggest that good time laws have little to no specific deterrent effects on inmate misbehavior. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]