Prison suicides hit record levels, charity warns

The Howard League for Penal Reform has raised concern over the rise of suicides taking place in prisons in England and Wales.

It highlighted that cuts to staffing and budgets had ‘created a toxic mix of violence, death and human misery’, with prison suicides at their highest since records began in 1978.

The figures, published in conjunction with Centre for Mental Health, showed a rise in violence in prisons at a time when inmates were spending up to 23 hours a day locked in their cells.

The report called for incentives and earned privilege schemes in prisons to be scrapped, claiming it could have a ‘detrimental impact’ on inmates' wellbeing, with some prisoners having limited family contact, physical activity and access to money and possessions.

Frances Crook, Howard League chief executive, said: "The number of people dying by suicide in prison has reached epidemic proportions.

"No one should be so desperate while in the care of the state that they take their own life, and yet every three days a family is told that a loved one has died behind bars.

"Cutting staff and prison budgets while allowing the number of people behind bars to grow unchecked has created a toxic mix of violence, death and human misery."

A government spokeswoman maintained that mental health in custody was taken ‘extremely seriously’ and there were ‘a range of measures already in place to help support prisoners’.

She added: "But we recognise that more can be done. That is why have invested in specialist mental health training for prison officers, allocated more funding for prison safety and have launched a suicide and self-harm reduction project to address the increase in self-inflicted deaths and self-harm in our prisons."