Deaths in prison (2)
01 May 2004
The death toll in UK prisons continues to rise. In recent months, the following deaths due to self-harm have been recorded:
HMP SHREWSBURY
Brian Carter, 9.3.04
William Butterfield, age 61, 8.5.04 (William was not on suicide watch, despite outbursts during his trial and a history of depressive illness.)
RAINSBROOK SECURE TRAINING CENTRE
Gareth Myatt, 19.5.04
HMP BLAKENHURST
Spencer Smith, 19.5.04
Stephen Ram, 28.7.04.
HMP WALTON
Michael Misrall, 19.5.04
HMP WOODHILL
Stuart Horgan, 20.6.04 (died as a result of self-inflicted razor-blade wounds while awaiting trial for murder of his wife and sister-in law).
HMP MANCHESTER
Andrew Williams, 21.6.04
HMP HIGH DOWN
Lynton Setterfield, 8.6.04
Most alarming has been the increase in suicide and self-harm within the female prison population. The following are women prisoners who have taken their own lives to date this year:
HMP DURHAM Sharon Miller
HMP BUCKLEY HALL Rebecca Smith
HMP HOLLOWAY Heather Waite
HMP NEW HALL Louise Davies and Mary Lucy
Walsh
HMP BROCKHILL Sheena Kotecha
HMP HOLLOWAY Julie Hope
HMP EDMUNDS HILL Tina Bromley
HMP EDMUNDS HILL April Sherman
HMP MAGHABERRY Roseanne Irvine
HMP SEND Page Tapp
HMP LOW NEWTON Rebecca Louise Turner
Britain locks up more women than any other EU country except Spain and Portugal. The female prison population in England and Wales has grown 173% in the last 10 years - to 4,400. Between 1990 and 1995, seven female inmates killed themselves - an average of 1.2 per annum. In 2002, nine female prisoners took their own lives; in 2003, the death toll stood at 14.
Women prisoners are three times more likely to commit suicide than males. Women make up only 6% of the prison population, but account for half of all incidents of self-harm. The majority of offences for which women are jailed relate to property (theft), poverty (unpaid fines) or drugs. Suicide by female prisoners has risen by over 100% in the last decade. Recent research by the Howard League shows that the majority of female prisoners are under 25, prime carers of young children and convicted of non-violent offences. More than 90% have diagnosed personality disorders. There were 21,000 incidents of self-harm in the female prisoner population in 2003.
Two recent reports by Ann Owers, Chief Inspector of Prisons, gives some insight into the conditions women in prison have to endure. A report into HMP Durham described the conditions for women prisoners as "oppressive, claustrophobic and entirely unsuitable for holding women." The report noted that the conditions at the jail aggravated the distress and disorder felt by inmates. The report described HMP Durham as a constricted and forbidding physical environment with little space for association or activity on the enclosed wings and a particularly bleak and dispiriting exercise yard:
This is scarcely likely to enhance the mental state of women who are feeling distressed or anxious and who spend many years in this environment.
Six women have killed themselves at the jail in the last two years. In response to the report, Martin Narey, chief executive of the National Officer Management Service, stated that:
Staff at HMP Durham have been looking after a great
variety of prisoners, both men and women, with very different needs. The pressures they are working under are enormous, and yet, despite that, there is evidence of real care for prisoners and a determination to make a reality of resettlement.
A further report into HMP Styal, described by prison reform groups as the most savage report in 10 years, criticised the jail for reducing its drug detoxification programme to a methadone dispensing service, and condemned the high level of force used by staff. Six women died at Styal in 2002-3, all within the first month of custody. Five were addicts. It was only after the sixth death that a m