Labour’s prison suicides a “shaming indictment”
By Alex Stevenson
Overcrowding in prisons has contributed to the “alarmingly high” levels of suicides in England and Wales over the last ten years, it has been claimed.
The Howard League for Penal Reform pointed out over 900 people have killed themselves in prisons in the last decade.
But suicides by people in the care of the prison service fell from 92 in 2007 to 56 in 2008.
Despite this the government’s record over the last ten years was condemned as a “shaming indictment of our penal system” by the Howard League’s director Frances Crook.
She suggested the overcrowded prison system – whose population hit a record high of 83,810 last year – was partly to blame for the high number of deaths.
“Staff and resources are strained to the limit coping with an ever-swelling prison population rife with mental health problems, drug and alcohol addiction and histories of neglect and abuse,” Ms Crook said.
“With the present level of overcrowding in our prisons, people are literally condemned to an early death, despite the best efforts of over-stretched prison staff.”
According to the Howard League’s figures there were 1,789 deaths in total in England and Wales’ prisons in the period 1998 to 2008.
And in 2008 only 11 of the 56 prisoners who killed themselves were being monitored on suicide watch.
Ms Crook added: “Each one of these deaths should sit uncomfortably on the consciences of the prison authorities.”
