Suicidal ideation during the transitioning from prison to the community: financial hardship, relational distress, health issues, and gender

Abstract

Individuals who had contact with the criminal justice system are at high risk for suicidal ideation and attempts. The links between suicide risk and adverse experiences during the transition from prison to community are not well understood. This study sought to fill that gap by examining adverse reentry experiences as determinants of suicidal ideation among post-incarcerated men and women. Longitudinal data documenting reentry experiences during the first four to eight months after release were analyzed in binary cross tabulations and multivariate regression models. Results indicated that multiple reentry barriers in financial, relational and health domains exerted positive effects on suicidal ideation. Further, gender intersected with reentry barriers to predict suicidal ideation. Post-incarcerated women were more sensitive to relational reentry barriers, whereas health-related barriers exerted an amplified effect on suicidal ideation for their male counterparts. Policy implications and directions for future research are provided.

Keywords:

• suicidal ideation
• social rejection
• lack of family support
• homelessness
• unemployment
• mental disorder
• substance misuse
• reentry

Notes

1 The original categories of the race variable included White, Black, Asian, biracial, Native American, and other. Due to their extremely small portions, Asian (0.61%), biracial (1.65%), and Native American (0.95%) respondents were merged into the Other race category.

2 Given that there were six interaction terms of gender and reentry barriers in the model and that a large number of interaction terms may increase the estimated standard errors (Hosmer et al., 2013), a supplemental analysis was implemented in which the non-significant interaction terms were dropped. In this supplementary analysis, the interaction term of family support*gender was significant, with a p value smaller than .05 (results available upon request).