Association of overcrowding and turnover with self-harm in a Swiss pre-trial prison
Open accessAbstract
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.
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Ecological studies have identified a positive association between overcrowding and self-harm.
“Ecological studies looking at such variables have identified a positive association between overcrowding and self-harm.80, 81”
From Risk factors for self-harm in prison: a systematic review and meta-analysis (2020) · cites this paper as [80]
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- Authors
- Baggio, S., Gétaz, L., Tran, N., Peigné, N., Chacowry Pala, K., Golay, D., Heller, P., Bodenmann, P., & Wolff, H.
- Affiliations
- University of Geneva (CH)
- University of Technology Sydney (AU)
- Division of Prison Health, Geneva University Hospitals & University of Geneva, 1225 Geneva, Switzerland
- Centre Hospitalier Universitaire Vaudois (CH)
- Corresponding author
- Baggio, Stéphanie
- Venue
- International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health
- Publisher
- MDPI AG
- Published
- 2018-03-27
- Volume
- 15
- Issue
- 4
- Pages
- 601
- ISSN
- 1660-4601 (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC5923643
- OpenAlex
- W2794558097
- Cited by
- 33
- References
- 16
- Citations by year
- 2026: 1 · 2025: 5 · 2024: 6 · 2023: 3 · 2022: 5 · 2021: 4 · 2020: 5 · 2018: 4
- FWCI
- 3.81
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- gold
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- SERVAL (Université de Lausanne) (publishedVersion, other-oa)
- Archive ouverte UNIGE (University of Geneva) (publishedVersion, other-oa)
- IRIS (submittedVersion)
- RePEc: Research Papers in Economics (submittedVersion)
- DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion)
- UTS ePRESS (University of Technology Sydney) (submittedVersion)
- Archive ouverte UNIGE (University of Geneva) (submittedVersion, cc-by)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Suicide and Self-Harm Studies
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Criminal Justice and Corrections Analysis
- Social Sciences › Law › Criminal Justice and Penology
- Keywords
- self-harm, prison overcrowding, pretrial detention, institutional factors, suicide, non-suicidal self-injury, prisoner health, human rights of detainees
- MeSH terms
- Crowding, Ethnicity, Humans, Prisoners, Risk, Switzerland, Prevalence, Self-Injurious Behavior
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