How Hard Would It Be to Hang Oneself?

[yellowwoodII]

How would a person do it? Where to get the material to do it? How to make it successful? How would a person know how? How long would it take? How to hide the activity from the guards?

Lots of questions.

[Maru Kitteh]

1. All you need is a pair of underwear.

The end.

[jberryhill]

2. This is a common occurrence in jails and mental institutions

A pair of shoelaces and a bed frame is fine.

[unblock]

3. "Hang" is not really the right word.

"Hanging" generally implies a noose and enough of a drop to snap the spine at the neck.

The Epstein-type of death is better termed "asphyxiation" as there's no neck snapping involved, just a means of closing off the airways in the neck.

You don't need height for that, just a means to tighten something around the neck.

[mainstreetonce]

4. Thanks for explaining that

I keep hearing that there is nothing to hang from in the jail cell.

[pangaia]

6. But, how do you do it?

Don't worry, not me !!!

[unblock]

8. The hard part isn't tying a knot around one's neck

You can do that with bed sheets or clothing easily enough.

The hard part is not untying it as you run out of air.

Survival instinct normally kicks into high gear there.

So either the person has to be genuinely suicidal and have insufficient survival instinct in that moment, or they have to have planned to make it difficult to easily untie the knot. For instance, by tying their hands as well.

I'd rather not go into any more detail here, but I'm sure the internet spells out gory details elsewhere....

[stillcool]

5. here you go...

Suicide Methods in Prison
by insideprison.com, May, 2006
From strangulation to head-bashing, suicides can be harrowing, if not sometimes creative.
Strangulation
The most common methods of suicide, for a number of reasons, are hanging and strangulation, and the most common ligature points for strangulation are window bars, followed by bed fittings. Inmates spend most of their time alone in their cell, where they have access to bedsheets, time, and privacy. Inmates also use wires, ropes (usually taken from a workplace), shoelaces, socks, or belts. The most typical regiment for strangulation involves propping oneself up on a stool or chair, tying a makeshift rope around an overhead pipe, fixing a firm knot around the neck, and kicking away the chair underfoot. This method usually takes about 5 minutes. Some have used pencils, as short as a few inches, to simulate a tourniquet with shoelaces. Some have tied their necks and a radiator pipe and simply continuously twisted their bodies to eventually cut off the circulation. Some inmates have successfully hanged themselves from no more than 6 inches off the floor, and from vertical pipes on the walls as opposed to horizontal pipes on the ceiling.

Inmate mental health testing is essential to reduce suicide risk in prison.
Asphyxiation has also been achieved by using a plastic bag to cut off air circulation. In July 2002, Australian inmate Bradley William Rapley affixed a plastic "property bag," used for holding cigarettes, around his neck with blankets and towel fragments. Others, such as a suicide in Colonie, NY, used their prison socks to tighten the same sort of bag. A Belfast prisoner in September of 2005 confounded experts by employing a "bizarre" series of knots to secure a plastic bag around his head and successfully commit suicide. John McGrath made 6 knots from laces, shirts, and towels, covered his mouth with a plastic bag, and stuffed bits and pieces of the bag up his nose. Knot expert Michael Lucas said that McGrath had likely prepared the knots in advance, using "granny knots with a left twist," and doing them in proper sequence (1 September 2005 Belfast News Letter).
https://www.insideprison.com/suicide-methods-in-prison.asp

[zackymilly]

7. Hannibal Lecter made a Miggs swallow his tongue just by talking to him. n/t

[TheBlackAdder]

9. Ask David Carradine.