The Rise of Self Harm Prisoners

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This article examines the rise of self harm prisoners within the prison service and uncovers some very worrying statistics.

In 2004 there were 95 suicides in England and Wales including 32 people held in prison awaiting trial and 17,678 incidents of self harm. In 2003 remand prisoners accounted for a third of all self-harm incidents in prison.

Two people per week take their own lives in prison despite an increased investment of resources in suicide prevention with hanging being the most common method used according to the Howard League for Penal Reform in 2005. However, one must note the findings from the Safer Custody Group (SCG) self-inflcited deaths annual report.

The report indicates that according the the most recent figures the number of self inflicted deaths is declining from 86 in 2004/05 to 74 in 2005/06. Offenders in custody considering taking their own lives frequently use this method ‘because it is a lethal method, more likely to lead to death than other methods e.g., overdosing and it is difficult to remove all opportunities for hanging in prison’.

According to the ONS more than a quarter of men in remand have attempted suicide at some stage in their life. This figure does not include the suicide of 14 year old Adam Rickwood, who died in a privately run secure training centre.

Of the 95 suicides, 13 were women and five were under the age of 21. The 30-39 year age group has the highest rate of suicide. Almost one third of suicides occur within the first week of a prisoner arriving in custody and one in seven within two days of admission.

Although there were only 95 suicides in custody during 2004 one must also take into the account the fact that between 150 and 200 prisoners were successfully resuscitated that year by staff following serious self-harm incidents.

In addition to that throughout the period of 1996 to 2000, 354 people were found to have committed suicide within one year of being released from prison.

A study carried out in 2001 by Sattar found that ‘ten per cent of all ex-prisoner suicides had occurred within the first week of release and 50 per cent by the fourth week of release’. Thus highlighting that in reality a larger amount of suicides may be attributable to the prison regime.

During 2004 , 52 prisons had at least one suicide and 13 had three or more deaths. High suicide rates have been linked with lower levels of purposeful activity in prisons and the recent serge in over crowding. Research by the Prison Service has found that 10 of the 20 establishments with the highest incidence of self-inflicted deaths are also in the top 20 for turnover of population.

In contrast to 2004 the number of people killing themselves in prison has increased by 228% since 1985 and 16% since 2000.

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