The Ministry of Justice has launched an internal inquiry into the mental health backgrounds of prisoners who killed themselves, as new figures are expected to reveal that 2016 was a record high for self-inflicted deaths across prisons in England and Wales.
The justice secretary, Elizabeth Truss, has also ordered more prison staff to be trained as part of the specialist Tornado anti-riot squads after eight serious disturbances and riots broke out in the prison system in the last three months.
The latest quarterly “safety in custody” statistics are expected to confirm the increasingly volatile state of prisons in England and Wales. Self-inflicted deaths are expected to have risen to 113 in 2016, while incidents of self-harm have increased by more than 25%.
If confirmed, the final figure of 113 self-inflicted deaths in 2016 will compare with 89 in 2015 and the previous record high of 96 in 2004.
One key indicator of prison violence – assaults on staff and other inmates – is thought to have risen by more than 33% to an average of 65 a day across the prison system.
Official figures obtained by the Guardian under the Freedom of Information Act reveal that the number of incidents requiring the specialist Tornado riot squads to regain control of a prison tripled between 2013 and 2015.
The riot squads, which are specially trained to handle violent disorder, were called out five times in 2013, 16 times in 2014 and 15 times in 2015. The Ministry of Justice has not yet released figures for the Tornado squads for 2016, but recent figures for the deployment of the national tactical response group which deals with more minor incidents including rooftop protests, showed they were being deployed more than 60 times a month last summer.
Truss has told MPs that the existing force of 2,000 Tornado-trained prison staff is being increased “to make sure we can deal with any incidents that arise across our prison estate, particularly while we are building up the strength of our frontline”. An extra 2,500 prison staff are being recruited partially to reverse the deep cuts which have seen 8,000 fewer staff working in prisons over the past six years.
The justice ministry has also launched an internal inquiry following the recent inquest into the death of Dean Saunders, a prisoner at Chelmsford jail, who had mental health problems when he was sent to prison.
Dr Phillip Lee, a junior justice minister, has begun an inquiry into recent deaths in custody to see whether there is a pattern in why they are happening and whether policy changes are needed to the way mental health assessments are conducted in prisons.
Deborah Coles, director of Inquest,said: “This is a complacent response. Dean should never have been in prison in the first place. His death was entirely preventable.
“There have been repeated failures to act on the repeated recommendations arising from investigations, reviews, inspection and monitoring boards. We don’t need more reviews – the evidence is all there. It just needs government to take decisive action.”
Her reaction was supported by the shadow justice secretary, Richard Burgon, who said during a Commons debate that evidence from monitoring boards and inquest juries suggested too many people with mental health problems were in prison. “What needs to happen is that the ministry must ensure the recommendations of such bodies are acted upon,” he said.
Truss told MPs that immediate action was being taken to improve security and stability across the prison system, including the recruitment of 2,500 extra prison officers. She is shortly to introduce a new prison and courts reform bill to transform prisons, reduce reoffending and get prisoners into employment.
MoJ launches inquiry after record number of prison suicides in 2016
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