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Objective: To examine factors associated with suicide in prisoners.

Data Sources: Studies were identified through electronic searches of MEDLINE (1950–February 2007), PsycINFO (1806–February 2007), EMBASE (1974–February 2007), and CINAHL (1982–February 2007) without language restriction using the search terms prison, jail, felon, detainee, penal, and custody combined with suicide.

Study Selection: Included studies were investigations that reported on prisoners dying by suicide who were compared with prisoners in control groups (which were randomly selected or matched, or consisted of the total or average prison population). Subgroup analysis and meta-regression were used to explore sources of heterogeneity. Data Synthesis: Thirty-four studies (comprising 4780 cases of prison suicide) were identified for inclusion in the review, of which 12 were based in the United States. Demographic factors …