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Preventing prison suicide: perspectives from the inside
- Authors:
- HOWARD LEAGUE FOR PENAL REFORM, CENTRE FOR MENTAL HEALTH
- Publisher:
- Howard League for Penal Reform
- Publication year:
- 2016
- Pagination:
- 8
- Place of publication:
- London
Focuses on the views and lived experience of those with current or past experience of prison, examining what contributes to vulnerability and risk of suicide. In 2014 there was a marked increase in suicides in English and Welsh prisons, when 89 prisoners took their own lives. This was the highest number of suicides since 2007. In 2015 another 89 prisoners took their own lives. The number of suicides in prisons has remained high for two years, and by the end of March 2016 there had already been 27 self-inflicted deaths in prisons. The report highlights that staff shortages have increased the risk of suicide and that relationships between staff and prisoners are key as prisoners need to feel supported, cared for and able to confide in and trust staff. Drawing on findings from focus groups with both current and former prisoners, the briefing reports that prisoners described a culture where, on the whole, distress was not believed or responded to with compassion. In particular, arrival, being released and transferred were all cited as times when prisoners felt most vulnerable. Staff inexperience and lack of training around mental health were seen as a significant factor in increasing risk while mental health services in prison were mainly seen by prisoners as providers of medication. Conversely, wellbeing groups, the chaplaincy and imams, peer mentor schemes and listening schemes were perceived as helpful. The briefing argues that change needs to happen across the system to recognise the influence of the prison environment on people’s vulnerability. Prisons should be enabling environments, striving to be a psychologically informed environment with an emphasis on the quality of relationships. (Edited publisher abstract)
Advice, understanding and underwear: working with girls in prison
- Author:
- HOWARD LEAGUE FOR PENAL REFORM
- Publisher:
- Howard League for Penal Reform
- Publication year:
- 2004
- Pagination:
- 24p.
- Place of publication:
- London
... law. Specialist units for girls in adult prisons have been tried and failed not least because it is impossible to detach them totally from the rest of the prison. Even if physically separated from the adults, girls held in prison are still living in a punitive adult culture with high levels of self-harm, suicide, poor staff training and low staff ratios. Prisons are simply no place for children.
Suicide and self-harm prevention: the management of self-injury in prisons
- Author:
- HOWARD LEAGUE FOR PENAL REFORM
- Publisher:
- Howard League for Penal Reform
- Publication year:
- 2003
- Pagination:
- 19p.
- Place of publication:
- London
This report aims to raise the profile of the issue of suicide after release with the prison service, the national probation service the government, and all those who work and provide services to ex-prisoners. The document seeks to encourage a recognition that the government has a responsibility and moral duty of care not only to those in detention but also to those who have served a period in custody and have been released.
Suicide and self-harm prevention following release from prison
- Author:
- HOWARD LEAGUE FOR PENAL REFORM
- Publisher:
- Howard League for Penal Reform
- Publication year:
- 2002
- Pagination:
- 20p.,bibliog.
- Place of publication:
- London
This report aims to raise the profile of the issue of suicide after release with the prison service, the national probation service the government, and all those who work and provide services to ex-prisoners. The document seeks to encourage a recognition that the government has a responsibility and moral duty of care not only to those in detention but also to those who have served a period in custody and have been released.