Figures reveal record number of suicides in prisons

In a statement The Howard League for Penal Reform said it ‘has been notified of 102 people dying by suicide behind bars since the beginning of 2016 – one every three days’.

It added that this figure ‘is already the highest death toll in a calendar year since current recording practices began in 1978’.

However, for the fourth year running, the report revealed there had been no deaths by suicide at Ford Prison.

Meanwhile Lewes, for the first time in the same period, recorded one death by suicide in 2016.

The Howard League for Penal Reform and another charity Centre for Mental Health, have jointly published a report which sets out recommendations to ‘tackle the problem’.

It highlights that the prison suicide rate, ‘at 120 deaths per 100,000 people, is about 10 times higher than the rate in the general population’.

And states ‘urgent action is needed’.

More information can be found at howardleague.org