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EDITORIALS: Alison Frater Deaths in custody BMJ 2008; 336: 845-846 [Full text]

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Prisoner suicide rates

Dermot Walsh   (24 April 2008)

Prisoner suicide rates 24 April 2008
Dermot Walsh, Consultant Psychiatrist Health Research Board Send response to journal: Re: Prisoner suicide rates	In calculating annual suicide rates anong prisoners the use of the average daily number resident as denominator in rate calculation may be fallacious. It does not take account of length of stay which may vary from year to year as fashion in relation to the extent of remand and variations in length of sentence occur and therefore of the differential suicide risk as betwen short and longer stay prisoners. Competing interests: None declared