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Young Offenders: Self-Mutilation

Answer

The Prison Service does not use the term 'self-mutilation'. The following table includes all incidents of self-harm by 15 to 17-year-olds in any prisons where they were held in the period in question. It should be noted that the numbers refer to incidents not people (a number of individuals self-harm on more than one occasion and account for a disproportionate number of incidents), and do not reflect the severity of incidents, i.e. include all incidents no matter how minor the self-harm as well as noose/ligature making (even where no injury occurred).

Self-harm incidents¹
Prison	2003	2004	2005	2006	2007
Ashfield	134	159	132	163	94
Brinsford	16	4	38	62	39
Brockhill	12	1	0	0	0
Bullwood Hall	33	194	149	0	0
Castington	35	27	29	40	24
Cookham Wood	0	0	26	14	27
Downview	0	0	126	20	3
Eastwood Park	45	131	130	114	212
Feltham	41	56	51	39	52
Foston Hall	0	0	0	0	148
High Down	0	0	0	0	2
Hindley	30	13	69	42	15
Hollesley Bay	2	0	0	0	0
Holloway	44	37	0	0	0
Huntercombe	22	26	57	45	62
Lancaster Farms	3	10	28	77	5
Leeds	0	0	0	2	0
New Hall	292	196	155	136	175
Onley	75	1	0	0	0
Parc	25	17	14	19	28
Stoke Heath	31	92	73	83	89
Styal	0	0	0	1	1
Thorn Cross	1	0	0	0	0
Warren Hill	7	19	11	12	11
Wellington	2	10	25	20	10
Wetherby	0	0	49	34	10
Woodhill	0	1	0	0	0
¹The numbers of self harm incidents reported here are based on information supplied by prisons through the Prison Service incident reporting system (IRS). Self-harm is a high volume incident and is subject to technical and recording problems. Nevertheless, the system provides a sensible indication of the scale of self-harm but the numbers should not be treated as absolute. These figures may differ from previously published figures as some incidents are retrospectively added to IRS.

Secondary information

Type

Written question

Reference

475 c398W; 201714

Session

2007-08

Subjects

Young offenders Self-harm

Link

View this Written question on www.publications.parliament.uk