Suicidal Ideation and Its Correlates Among Incarcerated Persons in Taiwan

ABSTRACT

The prison environment is stressful, and suicidal behavior remains a significant issue. Recent studies on Taiwanese prisons have focused on factors associated with suicidal ideation among incarcerated persons. Using data from 1,362 respondents in 25 prisons, this study found a relatively low prevalence of suicidal ideation (<10%). Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) analysis revealed that depression, vicarious victimization, and victimization experiences increase suicidal tendencies, while family support and good staff relations reduce them. Recommendations include evidence-based suicide prevention interventions such as staff training, regular risk screening, restricted access to lethal tools, quality mental health care, and multidisciplinary management for high-risk individuals.

KEYWORDS:

• Incarcerated persons
• suicidal ideation
• suicidal spectrum
• importation model
• deprivation model
• ideation-to-action framework
• integrated motivation-volitional (IMV) model

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. The Control Yuan is the highest supervisory organization of the Republic of China (ROC) in Taiwan, also referred to as the Supervisory Yuan. According to the Constitution of the Republic of China (ROC), The Control Yuan is responsible for exercising the powers of impeachment, rectification, supervision (investigation), and auditing for all levels of governmental agencies, organizations, and institutions in the Republic of China (ROC) in Taiwan. In the Western system of checks and balances among legislative, executive, and judicial powers, those powers of impeachment, rectification, supervision (investigation), and auditing belong to legislative power. However, those powers were separated from the legislative department in 1947’s Constitution of the Republic of China (ROC) and the National government established The Control Yuan to independently exercise those powers and avoid being influenced by legislative, executive, and judicial powers. Hence, when some incarcerated persons experience suicide incidents, the committee members of The Control Yuan can exercise their supervision authority to conduct a detailed investigation. For more in-depth information, please refer to: https://www.cy.gov.tw/EN/Default.aspx

2. We acknowledge that the response rate seems unusually high. However, high response rates are quite common among incarcerated individuals in the Taiwanese prison system. For example, Chen et al. (2013) reported a response rate of 80%, Lai (2019) reported 75%, and Felix et al. (2023) reported 90%. According to Lai et al. (2012), these unusually high response rates may be a result of the Taiwanese correctional system’s cultural emphasis on scholarly research.

3. Hsh and Chung’s (1997) suicide risk scale consisted of 24 items and covered suicidal ideation, suicidal motivation, suicidal attempts, suicidal plans, and suicidal behaviors. In terms of suicidal ideation, it consisted of 6 items. We deleted two that did not appear to us to be measuring suicidal thinking, and adopted four to construct this suicidal ideation scale.