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Home Office

Answer

Sandra Gidley: To 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 Goggins: The 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. 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 -- 1 2 -- -- 1 4 3 previous three months4 _________________________________________________________________________________________________. 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.

Secondary information

Type

Written question

Reference

422 c876-8W; 177508;177565;177568

Session

2003-04

Subjects

Women Drugs Prisoners Prisons Misuse Remand in custody Suicide Self-harm

Contains statistics

Yes

Link

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