§ Bob RussellTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many people committed suicide in prisons in each of the past five years; of these, how many took place in safe cells; and if he will make a statement. [90362]
§ Hilary BennThe following table covers the 422 apparently self-inflicted deaths between 1 January 1998 and 31 December 2002. There have been six deaths of prisoners located in safer cells in the last five years.
194W
Number of self-inflicted deaths between 1 January 1998 and 31 December 2002 and self-inflicted deaths in safer cells Year Total self-inflicted deaths Total self-inflicted deaths in safer cells 1998 83 0 1999 91 0 2000 81 0 2001 73 2 2002 94 4 Total 422 6 Note:
The Prison Service employs the term "self-inflicted death" which includes all those
deaths where it appears the person may have acted specifically to take his/her own life.
The Prison Service has "safer cells" that can complement a regime providing care of at risk prisoners. The design of these cells has several features which can assist staff in the task of managing those at risk from suicide, such as specially designed furniture and fixtures which are manufactured and installed to make the attachment of ligatures very difficult, and access to window bars prevented via non-opening windows with integral ventilation grills.
The Prison Service is half way through a three-year programme to develop policies and practices to reduce prisoner suicide and self-harm in prisons. This work includes increasing the numbers of safer cells and making safer cell furniture more easily available to establishments. To date installations have been carried out to provide 2100 adult male and 610 juvenile and young offender safer cells. In addition a further 880 adult male safer cells are planned to come on line in 2003–04. Prototypes for large-scale production of safer cell furniture aim to reduce the current cost of safer cell furniture installations by approximately one third.