{"id":5341,"date":"2017-01-26T09:04:57","date_gmt":"2017-01-26T14:04:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/?p=5341"},"modified":"2017-01-26T09:04:57","modified_gmt":"2017-01-26T14:04:57","slug":"prison-suicides-rise-record-level-england-wales","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/2017\/01\/26\/prison-suicides-rise-record-level-england-wales\/","title":{"rendered":"Prison suicides rise to record level in England and Wales"},"content":{"rendered":"<h1 class=\"story-body__h1\">Prison suicides rise to record level in England and Wales<\/h1>\n<div class=\"story-body__inner\">\n<p>A record number of people killed themselves in prisons in England and Wales in 2016, figures show.\u00a0 The Ministry of Justice said there were 119 self-inflicted deaths &#8211; 29 more than the previous year and the highest number since records began in 1978.\u00a0 It also reported a record high of 37,784 self-harm incidents and 25,049 assault incidents.\u00a0 Justice Secretary Liz Truss said prisons faced &#8220;long-standing issues that will not be resolved in weeks&#8221;.\u00a0 She said the government was investing an extra \u00a3100m into the prisons estate, as well as hiring 2,500 more officers.<\/p>\n<ul class=\"story-body__unordered-list\">\n<li class=\"story-body__list-item\"><a class=\"story-body__link\" href=\"http:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/uk-38596034\">What is going wrong with our prisons?<\/a><\/li>\n<li class=\"story-body__list-item\"><a class=\"story-body__link\" href=\"http:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/uk-36327325\">Video: Cannabis smoking in front of prison guards<\/a><\/li>\n<li class=\"story-body__list-item\"><a class=\"story-body__link\" href=\"http:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/38651486\">See our special report on prisons under pressure<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Last year, thousands of <a class=\"story-body__link\" href=\"http:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/uk-36737016\">staff walked out in protest<\/a> over health and safety concerns, amid claims the prison system was &#8220;in meltdown&#8221; because of overcrowding and staff shortages.\u00a0 A number of serious disturbances also erupted in jails.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"media-landscape has-caption full-width\"><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<p>The <a class=\"story-body__link-external\" href=\"https:\/\/www.gov.uk\/government\/uploads\/system\/uploads\/attachment_data\/file\/586114\/safety-in-custody-quarterly-bulletin.pdf\">MOJ figures<\/a> show that in the 12 months to September 2016 there were:<\/p>\n<ul class=\"story-body__unordered-list\">\n<li class=\"story-body__list-item\">Seven suicides at Woodhill, in Milton Keynes &#8211; the jail with the highest number<\/li>\n<li class=\"story-body__list-item\">Five in Bristol and four each in Bedford, Exeter, Humber, Leeds and Manchester prisons<\/li>\n<li class=\"story-body__list-item\">A record 354 deaths in custody overall &#8211; up by about a third on 2015<\/li>\n<li class=\"story-body__list-item\">Three apparent homicides &#8211; down from a record eight in 2015<\/li>\n<li class=\"story-body__list-item\">Nearly 70 assaults every day &#8211; the number of serious attacks was up 28%<\/li>\n<li class=\"story-body__list-item\">6,430 assaults on staff &#8211; up 40% on 2015. Of these, 761 were classed as serious<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Peter Dawson, director of the Prison Reform Trust, said reducing the jail population was the &#8220;only realistic way to make our prisons safe in the foreseeable future&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>Prisons in England in Wales are at 98% capacity, with 85,058 inmates, according to <a class=\"story-body__link-external\" href=\"https:\/\/www.gov.uk\/government\/statistics\/prison-population-figures-2017\">latest figures<\/a>. The vast majority of inmates &#8211; 81,102 &#8211; are men.<\/p>\n<p>Mr Dawson added: &#8220;We know that the worst outcomes happen in overcrowded prisons.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Frances Crook, chief executive of the Howard League for Penal Reform, said suicide rates in prisons were a &#8220;national scandal&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The suicide rate in prisons is 10 times that in the community. So prisons are actually killing people. That shouldn&#8217;t happen in our prisons. People should at least be safe,&#8221; she said.<\/p>\n<p>Deborah Coles, director of the charity Inquest which works with inmates&#8217; families, said the prison estate was a &#8220;broken system&#8221; unable to deal with prisoners&#8217; problems, such as mental and physical ill health and addictions.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Inquest after inquest highlights the same systemic failures,&#8221; Ms Coles added.<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"story-body__crosshead\">&#8216;Desperate need&#8217;<\/h2>\n<p>Professor Pamela Taylor, chairwoman of the Royal College of Psychiatrists&#8217; forensic faculty, said that the prison estates&#8217; mental health teams were understaffed and struggling to help prisoners in &#8220;desperate need&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>She said: &#8220;In many cases there is no-one available to escort prisoners to in-prison clinics; from time to time, even when a psychiatrist goes to a prisoner&#8217;s cell&#8230; there are not enough prison officers present and the cell door can&#8217;t be unlocked for safety reasons.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Her comments came after the Prisons Ombudsman found the criminal justice system &#8220;did too little to protect&#8221; a vulnerable inmate who electrocuted himself in prison.<\/p>\n<div id=\"ns_chart_prisons_self_inflicted_deaths\"><\/div>\n<p>The MoJ said the rise in assaults had coincided with major changes to the prison regime, operating arrangements and culture in prisons over the last five years.<\/p>\n<p>It pointed to &#8220;restructuring of the prison estate including staff reductions, which have reduced overall running costs, and an increasing awareness of gang culture and illicit psychoactive drugs in prisons&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>The ministry added: &#8220;As well as the dangers to both physical and mental health, trading in these illicit drugs can lead to debt, violence and intimidation.&#8221;<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"story-body__crosshead\">\u00a31.3bn plans<\/h2>\n<p>Ms Truss said she had taken &#8220;immediate action&#8221; to stabilise the prison estate by tackling issues such as drugs and the use of phones that undermined security.<\/p>\n<p>She added: &#8220;These are long-standing issues that will not be resolved in weeks or months but our wholesale reforms will lay the groundwork to transform our prisons, reduce reoffending and make our communities safer.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>In November, <a class=\"story-body__link\" href=\"http:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/uk-37854358\">Ms Truss unveiled a White Paper<\/a> detailing a \u00a31.3bn investment in new prisons over five years, with plans for extra officers, drug tests and more autonomy for governors.<\/p>\n<p>The move followed <a class=\"story-body__link\" href=\"http:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/uk-37627313\">calls from prison governors<\/a> for an independent public inquiry into the increase in violence and suicides in jails.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Source\u00a0 <a href=\"http:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/uk-38756409\" target=\"_blank\">www.bbc.co.uk<\/a><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"border-radius: 2px; text-indent: 20px; width: auto; padding: 0px 4px 0px 0px; text-align: center; font: bold 11px\/20px 'Helvetica Neue',Helvetica,sans-serif; color: #ffffff; background: #bd081c no-repeat scroll 3px 50% \/ 14px 14px; position: absolute; opacity: 1; z-index: 8675309; display: none; cursor: pointer;\">Save<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"border-radius: 2px; text-indent: 20px; width: auto; padding: 0px 4px 0px 0px; text-align: center; font: bold 11px\/20px 'Helvetica Neue',Helvetica,sans-serif; color: #ffffff; background: #bd081c no-repeat scroll 3px 50% \/ 14px 14px; position: absolute; opacity: 1; z-index: 8675309; display: none; cursor: pointer;\">Save<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"border-radius: 2px; text-indent: 20px; width: auto; padding: 0px 4px 0px 0px; text-align: center; font: bold 11px\/20px 'Helvetica Neue',Helvetica,sans-serif; color: #ffffff; background: #bd081c no-repeat scroll 3px 50% \/ 14px 14px; position: absolute; opacity: 1; z-index: 8675309; display: none; cursor: pointer;\">Save<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<div class=\"mh-excerpt\">Prison suicides rise to record level in England and Wales A record number of people killed themselves in prisons in England and Wales in 2016, figures show.\u00a0 The Ministry of Justice said there were 119 <a class=\"mh-excerpt-more\" href=\"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/2017\/01\/26\/prison-suicides-rise-record-level-england-wales\/\" title=\"Prison suicides rise to record level in England and Wales\">[&#8230;]<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":5346,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pmpro_default_level":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2,4],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-5341","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-news","8":"category-uk","9":"pmpro-has-access"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5341","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/14"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5341"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5341\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5347,"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5341\/revisions\/5347"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5346"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5341"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5341"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5341"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}