Prisoners: Self-harm

(asked on 17th May 2021) - View Source

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what is the latest data on the number of prisoners reported to have self-harmed while serving imprisonment for public protection sentences on recall.


This question was answered on 2nd June 2021

Figures for the number of self-harm incidents by recalled Imprisonment for Public Protection prisoners for each of the past three years are shown below:

2018 = 584

2019 = 743

2020 = 761

We are focussing our efforts to address the levels of self-harm across the prison population, and are under no illusions about the impact of the measures which were put in place to protect lives during the Covid-19 pandemic, so we have made prisoners’ safety and wellbeing our priority.

We have produced a range of products to support Governors in devising and implementing local safety and welfare plans designed to mitigate risks and promote wellbeing. Over 25,000 new and existing staff have received self-harm and suicide prevention training to help them better support prisoners with complex needs. We’ve enabled continued family contact through more than 1,600 secure mobile phones and rolled out secure video call technology into every single prison in the male, female and youth estate. Each prisoner is also currently given additional PIN credit per week. We are also delivering more in cell-activities such as distraction packs, supplementary food packs, and additional educational materials to mitigate the impact of isolation.

We have renewed our partnership with the Samaritans who are providing the excellent Listeners scheme, which trains selected prisoners to provide emotional support to their fellow prisoners.

We have prioritised the roll-out of the revised version of the Assessment, Care in Custody and Teamwork (ACCT) multi-disciplinary case management system used in prisons to support people at risk of suicide and self-harm.

We have delivered improvements to the way we support, and case manage prisoners throughout their sentences by the significant investment in and changes introduced by the new Offender Management in Custody (OMiC) model. This will provide each prisoner with a dedicated key worker who will be able to better support them and identify concerns at an early stage so that they can receive the right support at the right time.

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