title: Jailhouse Blues revisited.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Over the past decades a number of studies have appeared on suicide among persons in jail and prison remand settings, and sentenced prisoners. In these papers contradictory views concerning the relation between suicide risk and length of custody were published.
  
  
  METHODS
  This article reports on a study that investigated all suicides (n=206) in all 29 Austrian jails and prisons between 1975 and 1996. The authors demonstrate the necessity to calculate the hazard that reflects the suicide risk in relation to time.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The results suggest three different periods of high suicide risk: immediately after admission and 2 months thereafter for prisoners on remand; for long-term prisoners the suicide risk correlates with the length of the sentence and slightly increases with the time of custody.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  With this knowledge, suicide prevention programmes in prisons and jails could be made more effective and economic.
authors.affiliation: Department of Social Psychiatry, University Hospital Vienna, Austria. PFrottier@aol.com
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Frottier
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Frühwald
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Ritter
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Eher
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Schwärzler
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Bauer
mesh_terms: D001317:Austria / Q000453:epidemiology; D006801:Humans; D015994:Incidence; D011330:Prisons; D013405:Suicide / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*