Suicide is escape from imprisonment.

Josephus reports on the noble death of Phaeasel, a high priest of Jerusalem who was taken captive along with Hyrcanus by the Hasmonean king, Antigonus:

When Hyrcanus fell down at his feet, Antigonus with his own teeth mutilated his ears, that never again in any circumstances might he resume the high-priesthood; for a high priest must be physically perfect. But Phaeseal was too quick for him; he bravely dashed his head against a rock, as he was not free to use sword or hand.”

Thus: “he died like a hero, crowning his life’s work with a fitting end.”[1]

In “Deprivation, Importation, and Prison Suicide,” Huey Dye analyzes the condition and composition of 1,082 prisons in the United States. The author concludes that long sentences, especially in maximum and supermax facilities, combined with violence and overcrowding, combined with limited mental health resources fashion an institutional and population dynamic highly conducive to suicide.[2]

In August 2013, Ariel Castro was sentence to life, plus 1,000 years for the imprisonment and rape of three women over the course of a decade. One month later, Castro was found hanging in his cell. Hitler shot himself in the head as the Russians approached. Heinrich Himmler and Herman Göring suicided by cyanide capsule. Rudolph Hess hung himself. Joseph Goebbels shot his wife in the head and then shot himself.

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[1] Josephus, The Jewish War, 57.
[2] Meredith Huey Dye, “Deprivation, Importation, and Prison Suicide: Combined Effects of Institutional Conditions and Inmate Composition,” Journal of Criminal Justice 38, no. 4 (2010).