Dynamics of the level of suicide among the special contingent of the penitentiary system and the general population of Armenia in 2003-2017

Suicide in the penitentiary system is a serious public and mental health problem. Objectification of the data on the level of suicidal activity in institutions of this type makes it possible to determine the priority directions of the organization of preventive measures. Aim of the work: to assess the dynamics of the level of general and suicidal mortality among the special contingent of the penitentiary system in comparison with the general population of the Republic of Armenia in 2003-2017. Materials and methods: official data of state statistics on the number of registered deaths (in 2003-2017) in the general population, data of the Ministry of Justice on completed suicides (2009-2017) among prisoners serving sentences in 12 penal institutions of the Republic Armenia. Mathematical processing of the material was carried out using the STATISTICA 10 software package. Results: during the period of 2003-2017 there was revealed a tendency towards an increase in the overall mortality of the population both in the Republic as a whole (108.5%) and in the penitentiary system (101.1%). At the same time, the average overall mortality rate in the population (8.88) exceeded 1.4 times that of prisoners (6.36). Analysis of suicidal mortality rates revealed more serious differences. Among the penitentiary contingent, the proportion of deaths from suicides over the observation period (2009-2017) averaged 14.2%, the level of which in different years varied from 10.5 to 24.1%. The relative average rates of suicidal mortality among the special contingent of penitentiary institutions were 90.39 (per 100,000 people) and the civilian population of Armenia (6.51). Conclusions: 1. The level of suicides among persons deprived of their liberty in Armenia exceeds the general population indicators for the period of 2009-2017 on average 13.88 times, and has an upward trend. 2. Reducing the number of suicides among prisoners should be one of the priority tasks of the medical and psychological services of these institutions, and not be solved only by methods of administrative regulation. 3. The basis of the work should be preventive measures in the form of analysis of specific risk factors associated with the conditions of detention, individual psychological characteristics of prisoners, as well as improving the professional training of personnel of institutions of penal institutions