Suicide Epidemic Hits Women's Jails

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Suicide Epidemic Hits Women's Jails

Sophie Goodchild 30 May 2004

Campaigners brand record level of female suicides in custody as 'desperate, depressing and shameful'

An unprecedented number of female prisoners have killed themselves over the last two months, prompting fears of a suicide "epidemic" in women's jails.

New Prison Service figures reveal that a total of six female inmates have taken their lives since 1 April. That compares to a total of 14 prisoners who killed themselves throughout the whole of last year - itself a record for women suicides in jails.

Inquest, which campaigns against deaths in custody, said the high number of female prisoner deaths was "desperate, depressing and shameful".

The figures also highlight the crisis facing prison officials over how to improve conditions for female prisoners, many of whom have suffered childhood abuse.

They also come two weeks before the publication of a new report into Styal women's prison in Cheshire, which was criticised by the prisons ombudsman earlier this year for its inadequate mental health provision.

Anne Owers, the chief inspector of prisons, is expected to focus on conditions in Styal's induction wing - where five women took their lives last year - in an inspection report which will be published on 14 June.

Suicides by female prisoners have risen by more than 100 per cent over the past decade. This has partly been blamed on the rise in the female prison population - from just under 2,000 in 1994 to a current figure of more than 4,300.

Research carried out by the Howard League for Penal Reform published earlier this year showed that the majority of these women were under 25, prime carers of young children and convicted of non-violent offences. More than 90 per cent of female inmates have a personality disorder and there were more than 21,000 incidents of self-harm last year.

Women make up only 5 per cent of the prison population but account for more than 15 per cent of suicides and 45 per cent of the incidents of self-harm.

Prison reform groups partly blame the deaths on the fact male prisoners take priority over women, with female inmates moved to make room for men in a practice known as "rerolling". This often means women end up far from family, leaving them vulnerable and isolated.

Drug addiction is another major issue. The Prison Service has introduced methadone prescription in some prisons, including Styal, and there have been no deaths there since the scheme was introduced. But reformers say far more needs to be done.

Inquest is lobbying the Home Office to make public an official report by Stephen Shaw - the prisons ombudsman, who investigates deaths in custody - into deaths of women prisoners. It is understood that Mr Shaw's office is concerned about the number of deaths since April.

"The real problem is with women being moved around the country at short notice," said Deborah Coles, the head of Inquest. "Women are being sent to prison on short sentences of seven days and that is clogging up the system."

Pauline Campbell has been campaigning for better conditions in women's prisons since her 18-year-old daughter, Sarah, killed herself at Styal in January last year. Last week, she was charged by police after demonstrating outside the prison.

However, Mrs Campbell told this paper that she will carry on with her campaign.

"All I'm doing is drawing attention to a serious national problem, and they are trying to stop me," she said.

'Anyone could see she was vulnerable'

There was no one to watch over Sheena Kotecha when she killed herself in her prison cell last month - despite the fact psychiatrists had described the 22-year-old as "depressed", "at risk of self-harm" and "vulnerable".

In letters to her parents, Ms Kotecha had told them she was desperate to end her life because of bullying by inmates at Brockhill Prison in Worcestershire.

An official investigation is now being carried out and there will also be an inquest. But her parents say nothing will compensate for their daughter's death.

"The night she died, Sheena called us to say 'I love you' and we tried to reassure her," says her mother Nalini, who lives in Leicester. "They could see she was a vulnerable prisoner."

The same week Ms Kotecha hanged herself, three other women took their lives in English jails. She died alone in her cell on 2 April, hours after collapsing in court after receiving a nine-year sentence for her role as getaway driver in an armed robbery. Ms Kotecha, who had no criminal record, always maintained her innocence, claiming that she had simply given defendant Daniel Wright a lift.

Her body was not found until the day after she died. Unaware of the tragedy, her parents tried to arrange a visit, only to be told the prison would call them back. They waited all day but it was not until 7pm that evening that two police officers broke the news of her death.

http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/crime/story.jsp?story=526357

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