Abstract
This chapter provides a critical analysis of the self-inflicted deaths in prison of individuals with mental ill-health. These prisoners are doubly pathologised; they have taken their own lives and they have mental health issues. This positivist discourse distracts attention away from the systemic, structural dynamics of prison regimes which, overwhelmingly, are based on delivering punishment and pain to the confined underpinned by a continuum of violence and terror. This dynamic gives meaning to, and provides the context for, the actions of the deceased. Locating these deaths on this continuum requires radically different political and policy responses compared with the liberal, reformist logic which has historically dominated the state’s actions. These actions have lamentably failed to prevent these deaths from occurring with devastating consequences for the families of the deceased.
‘Malignant Reality’, in the title, is a phrase used by Thompson (2011, p. 145).
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Acknowledgements
Thanks to the staff at INQUEST and to David Scott and Carly Speed for discussing this issue with me, to Maureen Kenny for her technical support and to Kathy Kendall and Alice Mills for their patience.
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Sim, J. (2018). ‘Malignant Reality’: Mental Ill-Health and Self-Inflicted Deaths in Prisons in England and Wales. In: Mills, A., Kendall, K. (eds) Mental Health in Prisons. Palgrave Studies in Prisons and Penology. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-94090-8_10
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