Suicide in Prisons and Other Custodial Settings in Bangladesh: Key Challenges for Prevention

Prisoners are at a significantly higher risk of suicide than the general population, and suicide is the leading cause of death in prisons and other custodial settings worldwide. In Bangladesh, there is neither a national suicide prevention strategy nor a specific, evidence-based approach to preventing or reducing suicide in custodial environments. Drawing on recognised approaches elsewhere, it will be essential to have a national routine data collection strategy, support for targeted research and development of appropriate support services. No country, however, has fully solved this problem, so international co-operation on evidencing best practice in differing circumstances would also be important. Suicide in prisons and other custodial settings is a global concern, as it is a leading cause of death in these environments. Suicide rates in custodial settings are often several times higher than those of the general population of similar age groups (Blaauw and Kerkhof 2002; Favril 2021; Rabe 2012; Zhong et al. 2021). Across 95 countries in 2022, on average, 34 prisoners per 100,000 died by suicide. This is over three times the global average general population-based suicide rate of just over 9 per 100,000 in 2019. Suicide accounted for the highest proportion of prison deaths in Europe (18%), followed by the Americas (12%). In Asian and African countries with available data, suicide made up less than 5% of prisoner deaths (United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime 2024). A cross-national analysis of 24 high-income countries identified 3906 prison suicides between 2011 and 2014, with the highest prison suicide rates observed in Nordic countries (exceeding 100 suicides per 100,000 prisoners), followed by Western Europe, Australasia and North America (Fazel et al. 2017). On the other hand, a global systematic review (2000–2021) across 82 jurisdictions reported that suicide rates in prisons exceeded those of the age-standardized general population by over tenfold for women and twofold for men (Mundt et al. 2024). International literature has spotted diverse risk factors associated with suicide in prisons and custodial settings, which may be categorized into two main areas along the suicidal process: one focusing on individual prisoner characteristics—such as complex clinical and health needs or pre-existing vulnerabilities that prisoners “import” into custody—and the other focusing on the prison environment, particularly the deprivations and psychological distress associated with imprisonment (Favril 2021; Perugino et al. 2022). A comprehensive systematic review and meta-analysis examining 35,351 prison suicides across 77 studies in 27 countries categorized five key risk factors for prison suicide: suicidal ideation during the concurrent period of imprisonment, a history of previous suicide attempts, prior self-harm, single-cell occupancy and concurrent psychiatric illness (Zhong et al. 2021). There is extensive literature on prison or custodial suicide in European and other high-income countries, but there are very little data from low- and middle-income regions (Fritz et al. 2021). Bangladesh is a densely populated low-income country in South Asia with an estimated population of 170 million (Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics 2023). According to the World Health Organization (2025), 4714 suicide deaths were reported in 2021 in Bangladesh, with the suicide rate estimated at 2.8 per 100,000 population. Despite the seriousness of suicide as a public health issue in Bangladesh, the country lacks a national suicide surveillance system or comprehensive nationwide survey to identify suicidal risk factors across different demographic and geographic populations. A critical problem in accurate reporting is that suicide remains criminalised in Bangladesh and, in turn, effective prevention efforts are lacking (Arafat and Khan 2024; A. R. Khan 2023). In line with this broader data deficiency, the exact rates of suicide among prisoners remain unidentified (Arafat and Kar 2025; Arafat et al. 2024). Unlike many Western countries that maintain official systems for recording all deaths in prison/custodial settings, Bangladesh lacks a mechanism to provide such accessible and transparent data. Neither the Department of Prisons nor the Bangladesh Police offers publicly available statistics on suicide or self-harm within prison or other custodial settings. Consequently, not even aggregate data are available to the general public or to bona fide researchers. Moreover, there is also a complete absence of any field-based, empirical scholarly studies on the subject. This systemic deficiency in data collection and transparency significantly hinders preventive work in Bangladesh. Given the fact of lack of official records of suicide in custodial settings in Bangladesh, publicly available newspaper outputs are the only available sources permitting some research into this problem although due to the restricted nature of these institutions, such information does not easily come to the notice of the press. We reviewed the major online news outlets, using Google Search for the period between 2014 and 2024 to identify the prison and custodial suicides in Bangladesh. These yielded a total 20 prison/custodial unique suicidal deaths for the period between 2014 and 2024; 13 (65%) were in judicial custody (prisons and jails) and 7 (35%) in police custody. The highest number of suicides in a single year occurred in 2024 (n = 5, 25%) and 2022 (n = 5, 25%). A total of 6 suicide deaths (30%) occurred in 2020, 2021 and 2023, with 2 deaths in each year, whereas 4 suicide deaths (20%) were recorded in 2014, 2016, 2018 and 2019, with 1 death in each year; no suicides were reported in 2015 and 2017. Two-thirds (n = 15) of the suicides were by prisoners aged between 20 and 35 years, and all 20 who died by suicide were men. Forty per cent of the reported suicides involved individuals charged with homicide, whereas 20% involved those charged with a drug offence. Hanging was as the most common method of suicide, accounting for 18 (90%) of all suicide deaths reported in the press. Those who died by suicide used various locations within the prison or custody suite to carry out the act. In most cases, they hanged from bathroom ventilators, window grills or ceiling fans, using items such as shirts, lungis (indigenous pajama), blankets or trousers. The press reports made no specific reference to mental disorders in these cases. We contemplate that our aggregation of data from news outlets is likely to underestimate the number of suicides, given the size of the prison population in Bangladesh and the poor mental health supports in prison/custodial settings. For instance, in 2024, Bangladeshi prisons housed 53,831 people against an official capacity of 42,887, giving a prison occupancy of about 125% (World Prison Brief 2024). There is no well-structured prison mental health service or systematic screening strategy in place to assess mental disorders among prisoners in Bangladesh. Given the high level of stigma associated with incarceration, coupled with the lack of mental health support there, there is a strong likelihood of elevated suicidality among incarcerated individuals (Arafat et al. 2024; A. A. Khan et al. 2021). Although prisons are institutions of punishment, the United Nations Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners—commonly known as the Nelson Mandela Rules—explicitly affirm that prisoners have the right to access the highest attainable standard of physical and mental healthcare services. These rules also emphasise that prison healthcare systems must include adequate expertise in psychology and psychiatry (United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime [UNODC] 2024). Nevertheless, mental health services continue to be under-prioritised in the range of custody settings globally (Fraser 2009). Reducing the risk of suicide in prison and custodial settings necessitates the development of effective mental health services. In Bangladesh, the prison system is composed of 15 central jails and 59 district jails, housing male and female inmates in separate sections; in addition, there is one dedicated women's prison (Department of Prisons 2026). Mental health is not, however, prioritised within the judicial system, and there is no specialized focus on the psychological well-being of people in custody, whether accused or convicted (Ashraf (Kushal) et al. 2022). Specifically, there are no government-run psychiatric services within the country's prisons or custodial institutions (Skuse 2021). Medical staff working in prisons receive minimal training in mental healthcare, and there is no standardized system for mental health screening of inmates. In serious cases where psychiatric intervention is deemed necessary, prisoners are referred to nearby hospitals with psychiatric units (A. A. Khan et al. 2021). It is upsetting that although the Government of Bangladesh 2022 adopted the National Strategic Mental Health Plan 2020–2030, this does not explicitly outline any measures for suicide prevention in prisons or other custodial settings. Imprisonment is inherently a stressful and often traumatic experience, as it deprives individuals of fundamental aspects of personal autonomy, social connection and routine, leading to profound psychological distress (Gupta and Girdhar 2012). Individuals typically enter prison with pre-existing personal vulnerabilities, which, when compounded by the crises, uncertainties and ongoing stressors of prison life, significantly heighten the risk of suicide (Daigle et al. 2007). Although suicide is widely recognised as a preventable outcome, Bangladesh currently lacks a strategic framework to prevent suicide. A strategy for mental health and suicide prevention in custodial settings is needed. Authorities could draw on global best practices, including the World Health Organization's Preventing Suicide in Jails and Prisons guidelines (World Health Organization 2007) and the recommendations of the International Association for Suicide Prevention (IASP). In many high-income countries, prison suicide prevention strategies are grounded in rigorous research and detailed analyses of both prison conditions and clinical records of incarcerated individuals (Daigle et al. 2007). These strategies are often multilayered, targeting individual, institutional and systemic risk factors. For Bangladesh, developing effective suicide prevention mechanisms in prison and other custodial settings is imperative. Such strategies should be evidence-based, aligned with international guidelines and informed by a critical review of practices proven effective in other contexts. A holistic approach is essential—one that addresses not only individual-level factors such as mental illness and personal history, but also environmental and institutional contributors like overcrowding, poor living conditions, lack of access to mental healthcare and staff training. At the simplest level, as indicated even in the few press reports, removing of safeguarding ligature points in prisons would be an important start. Given that the global rate of suicide in custodial settings is significantly higher than in the general population (Challinor et al. 2024), there is no viable alternative but to establish comprehensive, context-sensitive suicide prevention strategies in Bangladesh's prisons and custodial institutions. The country should actively engage with international experts specializing in prevention of prison suicide and custodial deaths to ensure that its intervention framework is both informed and effective. Indeed, given that no country has yet fully solved this problem, an international network of such experts and practitioners with varying levels of expertise and resources might benefit all. The authors have nothing to report. The authors have nothing to report. The authors declare no conflicts of interest. The authors have nothing to report. Please note: The publisher is not responsible for the content or functionality of any supporting information supplied by the authors. Any queries (other than missing content) should be directed to the corresponding author for the article.