danielle
11-21-2002, 04:15 PM
Study finds high number of preventable inmate deaths
Majority died in violent circumstances,
including suicide, in Canadian facilities
By KIRK MAKIN
JUSTICE REPORTER
Prisoners are dying at twice the rate of men in their age group in the outside world -- and many of these deaths could have been prevented, a study appearing today in the Canadian Medical Association Journal says.
The study -- which assembled data about every inmate who died in an Ontario penitentiary, jail or police detention cell during the 1990s -- found 309 deaths.
More than half of the deaths were due to violent causes, including 90 suicides, many of which might have been prevented if staff had been better trained and more willing to take action, the study concludes.
It also found that 50 times as many federal penitentiary inmates die from drug overdoses as in the general population, while the rate is 30 times as high for provincial inmates.
The study compared the prisoners who died with the death statistics for men outside prison between the ages of 24 and 49. To reach their findings, the authors excluded the handful of females who died in custody -- eight -- as well as 17 dead inmates about whom no information was available.
In federal institutions, the study discovered 421.1 deaths per 100,000 prisoners. In provincial institutions, the death rate was 211.5 per 100,000.
"At the end of the 20th Century, we have shown an elevated death rate that is twice that of the general population," the study said.
Any convict sentenced to more than two years is sent to a federal penitentiary. Those with lesser sentences serve them in provincial jails.
The authors said that the rate of suicides and overdoses in the federal system is surprising in view of the fact that penitentiaries have relatively stable environments that lend themselves to preventive measures.
"It is particularly worrisome that suicide rates were higher federally than provincially, whereas one would expect the reverse," they said. The authors concluded that it may suggest "a lack of preventive effort" in federal institutions.
"Many of the suicides in our study population occurred shortly after arrest and around the time of sentencing, which is a well-documented danger period," the study said.
One of the four Queen's University professors involved in the study, Peter Ford, said in an interview that drugs also cause more deaths than are necessary among prisoners. Dr. Ford said he has seen firsthand that there is no truth to a boast from Correctional Services Canada that methadone programs are universally available.
Because of the high cost of treatment, Dr. Ford said, only a modest proportion of inmates are admitted to the programs. "Everybody else is on a waiting list," he said.
Dr. Ford and the other researchers -- Wendy Wobeser, Jason Datema and Benoit Bechard -- also found that:
24 per cent of those who died were under the age of 30. Inmates who died violently were significantly younger than those who died of natural causes.
Fifty-four inmates died of "poisoning," mostly drug overdoses.
An unusual number of young men died from heart attacks in prison, possibly because they were cocaine-users.
The overall rate of death was twice as high among penitentiary inmates as it was among provincial inmates.
The authors said that the propensity of penitentiary inmates to attempt suicide may be a result of the depressions they often fall into when they lose appeals of lengthy sentences.
Two Austrian doctors who reviewed the study before its publication called it one of the few truly extensive studies of prison deaths ever conducted.
Majority died in violent circumstances,
including suicide, in Canadian facilities
By KIRK MAKIN
JUSTICE REPORTER
Prisoners are dying at twice the rate of men in their age group in the outside world -- and many of these deaths could have been prevented, a study appearing today in the Canadian Medical Association Journal says.
The study -- which assembled data about every inmate who died in an Ontario penitentiary, jail or police detention cell during the 1990s -- found 309 deaths.
More than half of the deaths were due to violent causes, including 90 suicides, many of which might have been prevented if staff had been better trained and more willing to take action, the study concludes.
It also found that 50 times as many federal penitentiary inmates die from drug overdoses as in the general population, while the rate is 30 times as high for provincial inmates.
The study compared the prisoners who died with the death statistics for men outside prison between the ages of 24 and 49. To reach their findings, the authors excluded the handful of females who died in custody -- eight -- as well as 17 dead inmates about whom no information was available.
In federal institutions, the study discovered 421.1 deaths per 100,000 prisoners. In provincial institutions, the death rate was 211.5 per 100,000.
"At the end of the 20th Century, we have shown an elevated death rate that is twice that of the general population," the study said.
Any convict sentenced to more than two years is sent to a federal penitentiary. Those with lesser sentences serve them in provincial jails.
The authors said that the rate of suicides and overdoses in the federal system is surprising in view of the fact that penitentiaries have relatively stable environments that lend themselves to preventive measures.
"It is particularly worrisome that suicide rates were higher federally than provincially, whereas one would expect the reverse," they said. The authors concluded that it may suggest "a lack of preventive effort" in federal institutions.
"Many of the suicides in our study population occurred shortly after arrest and around the time of sentencing, which is a well-documented danger period," the study said.
One of the four Queen's University professors involved in the study, Peter Ford, said in an interview that drugs also cause more deaths than are necessary among prisoners. Dr. Ford said he has seen firsthand that there is no truth to a boast from Correctional Services Canada that methadone programs are universally available.
Because of the high cost of treatment, Dr. Ford said, only a modest proportion of inmates are admitted to the programs. "Everybody else is on a waiting list," he said.
Dr. Ford and the other researchers -- Wendy Wobeser, Jason Datema and Benoit Bechard -- also found that:
24 per cent of those who died were under the age of 30. Inmates who died violently were significantly younger than those who died of natural causes.
Fifty-four inmates died of "poisoning," mostly drug overdoses.
An unusual number of young men died from heart attacks in prison, possibly because they were cocaine-users.
The overall rate of death was twice as high among penitentiary inmates as it was among provincial inmates.
The authors said that the propensity of penitentiary inmates to attempt suicide may be a result of the depressions they often fall into when they lose appeals of lengthy sentences.
Two Austrian doctors who reviewed the study before its publication called it one of the few truly extensive studies of prison deaths ever conducted.