The interview schedule called for the systematic reconstruction by each subject of the events, feelings, and concerns leading to the self-destructive act or acts. The material was content-analyzed using a typology developed to encompass the motives and meaning associated with suicidal conduct. The young offenders differed significantly from their adult counterparts on three major themes of the typology. Youths were disproportionately prone to (1) crisis that reflects the inability to maintain self-control and composure in solitary confinement, (2) crisis that signals a last ditch effort to revitalize waning social supports, and (3) crisis that marks the depletion of psychological resources in the face of social pressures and threats. Overall, the youths displayed distinctive patterns of psychological breakdown related to concrete coping tests posed in the prison environment as well as to self-esteem problems posed when imprisonment strains feelings of social competence and supportive personal relationships.