News / Crime
Prison suicides reach record level
The Ministry of Justice has revealed new figures for suicide rates for prisons in England and Wales, with levels in 2016 higher than any other year since records began, in 1978.
There were 119 self-inflicted deaths across the prison network – 29 more than in 2015.
And it’s particularly bad news for Bristol. In HMP Bristol (formerly known as Horfield Prison), there were five suicides in 2016 – the second highest number from an individual prison, after HMP Wood Hill (near Milton Keynes).
is needed now More than ever
The figures from the Ministry of Justice also revealed that the number of deaths in custody went up significantly in 2016 – to 354, an increase of around 30% since 2015. The prevalence of attacks on staff has also increased dramatically: up 40% from 2015 to 6,430, of which 761 were ‘serious’.
Justice Secretary Liz Truss has said that Britain’s prisons face “long-standing issues,” and said that the government would invest £1.3bn in prisons, along with hiring 2,500 more officers.
HMP Bristol has a capacity of 614 inmates, and is a category B men’s prison, meaning that it houses prisoners who do not require maximum security facilities, but who still pose a significant risk to the community. Around 80% of prisoners in Bristol stay for less than a year.
In 2015, the prison was branded ‘unsafe’ by the Independent Monitoring Board at HMP Bristol. They noted that there was a significant drugs problem, and that inadequate cleaning had led to cockroaches and other vermin. Since then, little has improved, and the prison has been found to be dangerously overcrowded with staff morale very low.
Read more: Bristol Prison ‘unsafe, if not dangerous’
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