§ Mrs. SpelmanTo ask the Minister for Women what efforts are being made to prevent suicides among the female prison population. [147104]
§ Ms HewittReducing the number of self-inflicted deaths and instances of self-harm in prison establishments is a ministerial and Prison Service priority. A proactive three-year programme to develop policies and practices to reduce prisoner suicide and manage self-harm in prisons commenced in April 2001. The main principles of the strategy apply across all types772W of prisons and prisoners whether male or female. An investment of over £21 million through the three-year programme is allowing physical improvements (now 75 per cent. complete) to be made at six 'Safer Local' pilot sites, one of which is the women's prison and Y01 Eastwood Park.
The learning resulting from this programme will benefit all prisoners; meanwhile, women prisoners are to benefit from a specifically targeted and separate suicide prevention and self-harm management strategy being developed for them. This builds upon a number of interventions including: internal improvements in handling population pressures; individual crisis counselling for women prisoners who self-harm; the continued development and evaluation of Dialectical Behaviour Therapy, which is currently being trialled at Durham, Millwood Hall and Holloway prisons; investment and planning to ensure progress on the detoxification strategy in the Women's Estate; the development (in collaboration with the University of Newcastle) of a new, three-stage screening process to more effectively detect mental health problems; and the introduction of a new training pack for all staff working with women in custody, which includes a module on the health and well being of women prisoners. £1 million from the Department of Health has been allocated to the Women's Estate to be spent on the recruitment of psychiatric nurses, and 11 out of the 17 prisons for women now have mental health in-reach facilities.
Brockhill, Eastwood Park, Holloway, New Hall and Styal prisons were among the first establishments to have full-time, dedicated Suicide Prevention Coordinators (SPCs); and now all women's prisons have a designated full or part-time SPC. All women's establishments also deliver suicide awareness training to staff and it is an inherent part of all employees' jobs to observe and report behaviour that may indicate a tendency to self-harm.