Suicide prevention: prisons

Warning: This briefing discusses suicide and self-harm, which some readers may find distressing.

Suicides in prisons in England and Wales

In 2023, provisional statistics show that there were 93 suicides in prison custody in England and Wales. This represented a rate of 10.8 suicides per 10,000 prison population, a rise on the 2022 figure of 9.4.

Over the past twenty years, the lowest rate of suicides per 10,000 prisoners was around 7 in 2008-2012 and the highest was 15 in 2016. The suicide rate rose between 2012 and 2016 but has declined overall since. Over the same period, the proportion of prison deaths attributed to suicide has declined by 28 percentage points: down from 58% of all deaths in 2002 to 30% in 2023.

The rate of suicides among male prisoners is higher than that in the male general population. An Office for National Statistics study of deaths between 2008 and 2019 found that the risk of male prisoners dying by suicide was 3.9 times higher than the general male population between 2008 and 2019.

Prison service response

The Prison Service Instruction, Safer Custody, issued by HM Prison and Probation Service to all prisons in England and Wales, details actions which must be taken by prisons to try to reduce incidents of self-harm and deaths in custody. It says staff must identify prisoners at risk of self-harm and/or suicide.

The September 2023 suicide prevention strategy notes that the Ministry of Justice:

• has committed funding for the Samaritans’ Listeners Scheme to March 2025
• will continue to roll out suicide and self-harm prevention training for prison staff
• is planning to install new ligature-resistant cells, focusing on the highest-priority prisons.

The Scottish Prison Service published the Talk to Me: Prevention of Suicide in Prisons Strategy in 2024. The strategy is currently subject to a review. The Northern Ireland Prison Service updated its Suicide and self-harm prevention policy in 2013.

HM Inspectorate of Prisons

In his Annual Report 2023-24 the Chief Inspector of Prisons for England and Wales, Charlie Taylor, noted a considerable increase in suicide and self-harm in some men’s prisons, with rates of self-harm doubling in some of the prisons inspected. The report stated that, despite increases in self-harm, “work to identify and address the root causes often lacked any real grip from leaders in some of the riskiest prisons”.

In terms of suicide, the report noted that the quality of early learning reviews following death or serious self-harm was often poor, with on occasion no systematic review or investigation to ensure lessons could be learned. It also noted limited support, stating that access to peer support, such as ‘listeners’ trained by the Samaritans, was poor, particularly at night.