§ Mr. StinchcombeTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many women over the age of 70 years have been remanded to HMP Holloway in the last year; for how long in each case; and for what offences. [177407]
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§ Paul GogginsTwo women over the age of 70 have been remanded to HMP Holloway in the last year, both for the offence of breaching a restraining order. The women spent one night and five nights in custody respectively.
§ Mr. StinchcombeTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many suicide attempts have been made by inmates of Holloway Prison in the last year. [177495]
§ Paul GogginsIn the calendar year 2003, there were 851 recorded acts of self-harm involving prisoners at HMP Holloway.
Suicidal intent is not easy to establish. The reasons why people self-injure are highly complex, and it is difficult to distinguish between acts of self-harm that were attempts at ending life, and those that occurred for other reasons. It is not possible, therefore, for the Prison Service to determine from the general figures recording incidents of self-harm those acts that could be described as attempts at suicide. The figure above therefore includes all acts of self-harm, however serious.
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: 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, Bullwood Hall and Holloway prisons; investment and planning to ensure progress on the detoxification strategy in women's prisons; 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 women's prisons to be spent on the recruitment of psychiatric nurses.
§ Sandra GidleyTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department (1) how many female inmates have committed suicide in England and Wales(a) broken down by prison and (b) in total in each year since 1997; and if he will make a statement; [177508]
(2) how many female suicides in prisons were (a) remand prisoners, (b) had a substance abuse problem prior to entering jail and (c) had been moved from another prison within the previous three months in each of the past three years; [177565]
(3) how many suicides there were in each women's prison in each of the past three years; and if he will make a statement. [177568]
§ Paul GogginsThe following table shows the number of self-inflicted deaths involving women prisoners in each year since 1997, the establishments in which the deaths occurred, the number of women who were on remand when they died, and the number of women who had moved from another prison in the three months before their deaths.
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Number of self-inflicted deaths per calendar year Establishment 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 20041 Askham Grange — — — — — — — — Brockhill — 1 1 2 1 — 1 1 Buckley Hall — — — — — — — 1 Bullwood Hall 1 — — — 1 — 1 — Cookham Wood — — — — — — — — Downview — — — — — — 1 — Drake Hall — — — — — — — — Durham — — — — — 2 3 1 East Sutton Park — — — — — — — — Eastwood Park — — — 3 1 1 1 — Edmunds Hill — — — — — — — 2 Foston Hall — — — — — — — — Highpoint — — — — — 1 — — Holloway — 1 2 1 1 1 — 2 Low Newton 1 — — — — — — — Morton Hall — — — — — — — — New Hall — 1 1 1 — 2 3 1 Risley 1 — — — — — — — Send — — — — — — — 1 Styal — — — 1 1 2 4 — Winchester — — — — — — — — PECS2 Area 3 — — — — 1 — — — PECS Area 6 — — 1 — — — — — Annual Total 3 3 5 8 6 9 14 9 Remand Total3 — 1 3 3 4 5 — 1 Moved from another prison in previous three months4 — 1 2 — — 1 4 3 1 To 1 June. 2 Prison Escort and Custody Services. Deaths in PECS custody include those that occur in courts, or during transfer from police custody to court or prison, to or from court, or between prisons. 3 Annual total includes all remand, convicted/ unsentenced, sentenced and judgment respited categories. The remand total is for those who died while on remand only. 4 Three months has been defined as 92 days. The definition does not rule out prisoners who may have spent time in their final prison on an earlier occasion. It is not possible to determine how many of the women who died had a substance misuse issue prior to entering prison, as such data are not collated centrally.
The number of self-inflicted deaths among women prisoners is recognised as a very serious concern by the Prison Service and Ministers. 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: 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, Bullwood Hall and Holloway prisons; investment and planning to ensure progress on the detoxification strategy in women's prisons; 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 women's prisons to be spent on the recruitment of psychiatric nurses.
§ Sandra GidleyTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many prisons there were housing women prisoners in each year since 1997; and if he will make a statement. [177509]
§ Paul GogginsThe number of prisons in England and Wales with female units at any time during the year, in each year since 1997, is given in the table.
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Prisons with female units England and Wales Number 1997 16 1998 17 1999 17 2000 16 2001 18 2002 19 2003 19
§ Sandra GidleyTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department (1) what assessment he has made of the effect of transferring female prisoners between jails; and if he will make a statement; [177566]
(2) what assessment he has made of the impact on the mental health of women prisoners of the distance of the prison from their families. [177567]
§ Paul GogginsThere is no specific research on the effects of transferring women between prisons nor on the mental health effects of being located far from home. But we do know from other data that being close to family and friends is particularly important for female prisoners and moving between prisons is bound to he disruptive to any prisoner.
The Prison Service has recently started research with Oxford University Public Health Department on the effects of imprisonment on women's health. The effects of women's locations in relation to their families and the effects of transfers between prisons are expected to be examined as part of that work. It is hoped that the preliminary results will be available by the end of 2005.