With a drop in the number of suicides in prison, are prisons becoming safer?

an article by Graham Duncan for the Centre for Mental Health’s February Newsletter

In 2016 there were 120 apparent suicides in English and Welsh prisons, the highest number ever recorded. Suicides had been rising year on year up to this point, with 84 in 2014 and 95 in 2015. So the news in 2017 that the number of prisoners who had apparently died by suicide had dropped to 77 was good news and welcomed.

Seemingly, something was happening in the prison estate to address the dramatic rise in suicide deaths and one hopes that this can be sustained and further reduce the tragedy of prison suicide. Does this reduction in suicide amongst prisons mean that prisons are becoming safer places? Possibly, but not all the news is good news.

Any suicide is one too many and therefore unacceptable. We should work towards achieving zero suicides. But suicides in prison are, and I use this phrase guardedly, relatively rare events. They are of course ‘a’ barometer of prison safety, but as relatively rare events they are probably not the best barometer. In the region of two thirds of English and Welsh prisons had no recorded suicide deaths in 2017. One prison (HMP Nottingham) is reported as having had six.

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