Jailed men 'at risk' of suicide

Thursday, 15 September 2005 12:00 AM

Male prisoners are five times more likely to commit suicide than members of the general population, according to research carried out by the Lancet.

This figure rises dramatically for young offenders, as those aged between 15 and 17 years are 18 times more likely to take their own lives while in custody.

It is claimed that research published in the Lancet medical journal today is the first to reveal the magnitude of the problem.

Labelled "shattering" by prison reform campaigners, the findings also reveal that between 1978 and 2003 there were 1,312 suicides in prisons in England and Wales.

Dr Seena Fazel, who helped lead the report and is based at the University of Oxford, said: "This excess is even greater than previously thought, might be especially pronounced in incarcerated boys, and has been increasing steadily over recent decades."

She added that although the reasons behind the figures cannot be established by the data, they "reinforce the need for comprehensive improvements in safety and suicide prevention initiatives in English and Welsh prisons".

Juliet Lyon, director of the Prison Reform Trust, added: "The revelations of this thorough-going study are shattering.

"These stark findings should prompt questions not only about the continuing failure of suicide prevention in British prisons, but most of all they should make us ask why the most vulnerable, mentally ill people are still being locked up in bleak, overcrowded institutions run by untrained, hard-pressed staff and held in conditions which are bound to make them worse not better.

"People are sent to prison to lose their liberty not their lives."

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