Suicide and murder rates in prisons in England and Wales have reached their highest levels in years according to figures recently released. In 2013, there were four alleged homicides – the highest number since 1998 – and 70 apparently self-inflicted deaths, more than at any time since 2008. In total there were 199 deaths in prisons in England and Wales.
Male prisoners’ suicide and self-harm is rising year on year. In 2013, five male prisons each recorded three self-inflicted deaths.
The suicide rate among female prisoners has fallen, thanks to safety measures recommended by Baroness Corston in a report published in 2007, following a sharp rise in female prisoners’ suicides, including six deaths in Styal prison in 2003. The commissioning of the Corston Report, and resultant reduction in deaths, are in part testament to the campaigning work of Pauline Campbell who from 2003, when her daughter Sarah died in Styal, up to her own death in 2008, fought tirelessly for action to reduce women’s suicides in prison.
Without doubt, the increase in male prisoners self-harming and taking their own lives, and the rise in prison homicides, are due to the ever increasing number of prisoners suffering mental health problems. Prisons have always held people who should be in hospitals, but the numbers began to rise sharply in the 1980s, when the Thatcher government started to close mental health hospitals and sell off the buildings and land. Treatment in hospitals was supposed to be replaced by ‘care in the community’. A fine idea in principle (and conditions for patients in some of the special hospitals were appalling) but cuts in spending and lack of resources have resulted in prisons becoming dumping grounds for the mentally ill.
And the closures continued long after Thatcher. Ten years ago, there were 32,000 mental health beds in England and Wales; that number has now been reduced by almost half.
Statistics gathered by the Prison Reform Trust show 26% of women and 16% of men were treated for a mental health problem in the year before custody, while 62% of male and 52% of female prisoners are classed as having a personality disorder. In 2011, 953 prisoners were transferred to National Health Service secure hospitals. Thousands more needing treatment remained in prison. An NHS medium secure bed costs £481 a day, more than four times the cost of a prison bed.
In March 2000, 19-year-old Zahid Mubarek was killed by his cell mate at Feltham YOI. His killer was diagnosed as having a severe personality disorder and should not have shared a cell with anybody. Since then, there have been some 26 prison homicides, over half committed by prisoners suffering from mental illness. The Prison Service is supposed to carry out a Cell Sharing Risk Assessment (CSRA) before placing prisoners in cells together; but investigations into some of the homicides revealed the CSRA consisted of simply asking prisoners if they were ‘safe’ to share cells.
Eric Allison
Fight Racism! Fight Imperialism! 237 February/March 2014
