Prisoners: Self-harm (Hansard, 22 January 2003)

§ Lord Falconer of Thoroton

The general prison population contains a large number of prisoners with a combination of psychiatric disorders, alcohol and drug dependency, family background and relationship problems and histories of self-harm and previous abuse, all of which raise their risk of suicide and self-harm. Good care and support from staff save many lives but such instances go largely unreported. The Prison Service's approach, in close partnership with outside organisations such as the Samaritans, is to identify better and support those who seem at greatest risk, with an approach that focuses on staff/prisoner relationships and the physical environment.

The Prison Service's suicide prevention and self-harm reduction programme includes a series of interrelated projects to improve pre-reception, reception and induction arrangements; inter-agency information exchange; prisoner care; detoxification; prisoner peer support, and the learning from investigations into deaths in custody.

Piloting of these projects is focused on six establishments—Wandsworth, Feltham, Eastwood Park, Leeds, Winchester and Birmingham—although others are involved in aspects of the work. An investment of £21.69 million over the three-year programme from April 2001 is allowing physical improvements to be made at these six sites, for example to reception and induction areas, and through the installation of more first night centres, safer cells, crisis suites and gated cells that enable staff to watch at-risk prisoners closely. The programme will be subject to an independent quantitative and qualitative evaluation.

Thirty full-time suicide prevention co-ordinators (SPCs) have been trained and located in the most high risk establishments, and a further 99 mostly part-time SPCs are now operating across the estate. There has been a continuing increase in the numbers of listeners being recruited in high-risk establishments, with 608 new listeners recruited within these establishments between 1 October 2001 and 31 March 2002 alone, and 93WA further recruitment and training are taking place. Listeners are prisoner volunteers who are selected, trained and supported by Samaritans to offer confidential support to their fellow prisoners who may be at risk of suicide or self-harm or otherwise in distress.

Between August 2001 and June 2002 a new healthcare screening procedure was piloted in 10 local prisons. Of the 10 establishments, six were adult male remand prisons (Leeds, Wandsworth, Holme House, Liverpool, Manchester and Durham), two were for female remand prisoners (Eastwood Park and New Hall) and two were young offender institutions (Feltham and Glen Parva). The two female prisons include both adults and women aged 16–21 years. An evaluation of the pilot project supported implementation of the new reception screening arrangements across the estate and a rolling programme is planned commencing in April 2003.