A qualitative analysis of the etiology, manifestation, and institutional responses to self-injurious behaviors in prison

Self-injurious behavior (SIB) among inmates remains a significant problem facing correctional institutions, placing undue financial, security, and personal concern on prison employees. SIB also represents a significant health risk to those practicing the behavior. To date, few correctional facilities currently maintain programs specifically designed to treat self-injury, opting instead to default to suicide protocols or disciplinary measures to address the problem. By searching for trends in a collection of incident reports involving self-injury, we found that the absence of activities to occupy inmates, as well as mental illness and the stress of prison environments, were all found to affect rates of SIB. We also discovered that in response to inmate SIB, an overwhelming number of penitentiaries do not utilize SIB-specific responses, instead opting to use suicide-response crisis intervention protocols. Creation of an SIB treatment program may help to formulate a more effective institutional response and treatment program for prisoner SIB.