Prison suicide rate rises 46 per cent in three years

 

An investigation and advisory group has been set up to help stop people dying from suicide whilst in prison.

 

The Howard League for Penal Reform and the Centre for Mental Health are working on forming preventative factors as figures reveal 29 people died in regional prisons last year.

 

The number of prison suicides in England and Wales have risen by 46 per cent in the last three years.

 

Chief Executive of the Howard League for Penal Reform, Frances Crook said: “No one should be so desperate whilst they are in the care of the state that they take their own life.

 

“The numbers hide the true extent of misery for prisoners and families – and for staff, who have been given the impossible task of keeping people safe in overcrowded prisons starved of resources.

 

“The question now for the Ministry of Justice is: what to do? This level of deaths, violence and anguish in prisons cannot continue to rise in a civilised society.

 

“We cannot go on cramming more people into jails without any thought for the consequences.”