This Article Full Text (PDF) References Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Alert me to new issues of the journal Add to Saved Citations Download to citation manager Request Permissions Request Reprints Add to My Marked Citations Citing Articles Citing Articles via HighWire Citing Articles via Google Scholar Citing Articles via Scopus Google Scholar Articles by Medlicott, D. Search for Related Content Social Bookmarking                         What's this?

Surviving in the Time Machine

Suicidal Prisoners and the Pains of Prison Time

Because of the nature of prison, with its forcible suspension of everday life and its emphasis on time-discipline, prisoners are forced to confront the issue of passing time and personal identity. Suicidal prisoners experience time as an acute source of suffering and connected to the deterioration of their sense of self. The nature of their relationship with time can be profitably explored by qualitative research which focuses on prisoner accounts, since prisoners themselves are valuable sources of knowledge about the prison experience in general and suicide in prison in particular. The accounts of prisoners demonstrate patterned differences between suicidal and coping prisoners in their relationship with prison time. Suicide awareness and prevention policies will be enriched if they acknowledge the special pains of prison time and their connection with personal identity, and aim at addressing these in regimes and care.

Key Words: identity • prisoners • suffering • suicide • time

Time & Society, Vol. 8, No. 2-3, 211-230 (1999)
DOI: 10.1177/0961463X99008002001


CiteULike    Complore    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    Twitter    What's this?

This article has been cited by other articles:

				M. Thomas and N. Bailey Out of Time: Work, Temporal Synchrony and Families Sociology, August 1, 2009; 43(4): 613 - 630. [Abstract] [PDF]