Trauma and imported vulnerability in prison suicides

Abstract

Suicide rates in prison are much higher than in the community. Significant data supports an approach to understanding this phenomenon that sees suicide as the outcome of incarcerated people bringing their vulnerability with them into prison combined with the pain and deprivation they experience on the inside. This article uses a personality development approach to argue that part of prisoners’ imported vulnerability – which puts them at a higher risk of suicide – results from a life trajectory marked by trauma. To this end, I draw on repeat qualitative interviews with 29 prisoners in Latin America who attempted suicide while incarcerated. Based on a study of their life trajectories, I argue that pre-prison trauma plays a role in suicide in prison by shaping prisoners’ personalities to make them more susceptible to negative emotions and reduced tolerance to distress, adversely impacting their modes of approaching and responding to the world.