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22/01/2015
Charity Reveals 82 Prison Suicides In 2014
Eighty-two people committed suicide while in prison in 2014, bringing the number to a seven year high, a penal system reform charity has revealed.
The data, compiled by the Howard League for Penal Reform, claims a total of 235 people died while in prisons in England and Wales last year – more than 120 by natural causes, 82 by suicide and another 24 which are as yet unclassified.
The charity, which campaigns for prison reforms, said that it compiled its data using Ministry of Justice figures, which record deaths in custody.
Frances Crook, Chief Executive of the Howard League for Penal Reform, 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 inside prisons and for families. "It is particularly tragic that teenagers and other young people have died by their own hand in our prisons and we should all be ashamed that this happened.
"Hard-pressed prison staff have to save lives by cutting people down almost every day and without this the death toll would be even higher.
"It is evident that people are dying as a direct result of the cuts to the number of staff, particularly more experienced staff, in every prison.
"The government has chosen to allow the prison population to increase whilst it cuts staff, and that has led to an increase in people dying by suicide."
(MH/IT)
The data, compiled by the Howard League for Penal Reform, claims a total of 235 people died while in prisons in England and Wales last year – more than 120 by natural causes, 82 by suicide and another 24 which are as yet unclassified.
The charity, which campaigns for prison reforms, said that it compiled its data using Ministry of Justice figures, which record deaths in custody.
Frances Crook, Chief Executive of the Howard League for Penal Reform, 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 inside prisons and for families. "It is particularly tragic that teenagers and other young people have died by their own hand in our prisons and we should all be ashamed that this happened.
"Hard-pressed prison staff have to save lives by cutting people down almost every day and without this the death toll would be even higher.
"It is evident that people are dying as a direct result of the cuts to the number of staff, particularly more experienced staff, in every prison.
"The government has chosen to allow the prison population to increase whilst it cuts staff, and that has led to an increase in people dying by suicide."
(MH/IT)
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