Prison Suicides in the UK - Case Study Example

To what extent are prison suicides in the UK a consequence of prisons being used to accommo too many people with mental health problems? It is a depressing yet resolute fact that people in prison are far more likely to commit suicide than those who are not imprisoned. However, prison suicide might not always be the consequence of too many mental health patients crowded together in the prisons. While criminals with mental health issues should be given a prison break and forced to attend certain rehabilitation centers reserved for treating criminals particularly, not always such an approach is accepted and practiced with the result that suicide subtly and gradually starts transforming into a sweet escape when one finds oneself crowded way too much by other prisoners who almost always have a history of self-harm and attempted suicide. Insufficient mental health treatment is provided by those in charge in the prisons. Extremely harsh, terrifying, and bleak facts are also revealed by a research study lately about the ten most horrific prisons of all times in the world according to which prisoners irrespective of their histories are kept unacceptably jam-packed like animals. The UK prisons are also teeming with psychopath prisoners to some extent who have severe mental health issues like major depression, anxiety, paranoia, and suicide idealization. Overcrowding is blamed for 37% rise in prison suicide among inmates living together in prison systems which have no good management (Woodward 2008). Concerning the alarming situation that as many as 9 out of 10 prisoners in UK are subjected to deal with the rough consequences of depression, paranoia, drug or alcohol abuse, anxiety, and personality disorders, the claim that the rough prison atmosphere in UK might be the reason behind growing number of suicides reported by prison officials starts appearing to be valid and acceptable. “More than two-thirds of all men, women and children in prison have two or more mental health problems such as depression and anxiety” (PRISON REFORM TRUST 2010). The incidence of mental or personality disorders is really not that common among the normal population and this frequency of ill mental health gives rise to prison suicides which are becoming more frequent in UK now than ever before. There definitely exists a connection between overcrowding in jails and suicide attempts by prisoners. Jails in UK are under pressure from overcrowding and more often than not, they cave in to this pressure with the result that the statistical data revealed by prison officials identifies that “the number of prisoners who killed themselves in jail rose significantly in 2007” (BBC 2008). The management of the prison needs to realize that the issue of keeping mentally sick offenders together with others raises concern for prison suicides. Reports identify that according to prison management and inspectors, suicide rates at a Manchester prison have consistently been “too high for too long” (BBC 2012). The situation which starts developing gradually as more and more mentally ill prisoners are entered one after another no matter how much little space is left in the prison is not totally describable as it involves many intricate details connected to the prisoners themselves which are not always disclosed by the prison officials. The influence produced by prison suicide does not remain reserved to the family and friends only as “every self-inflicted death is a tragedy which impacts not only on families but also on prisoners and prison staff” (BBC 2012). Research identifies that “the prison population has been rising massively and last month hit a record high of more than 81,000” (dailymail.co.uk 2007). According to a another report, the number of prisoners in England and Wales as of 2009 has exceeded 82000 and nine out of ten prisoners were diagnosed with a severe mental or personality disorder in addition to other difficulties like not being able to relate with other prisoners and building fantasies to kill some of them while one in 10 was reported to have “a severe mental illness such as schizophrenia or bipolar disorder: 10 times as many as in the population outside” (Duggan 2009). As many mental health courts have now opened their doors in UK to sorting out better options for those criminals who have history of mental health problems, situation has bettered by a few degrees as this approach is accepted by critics to be much mature than the insensible imprisonment of those with a severe mental illness or personality disorder. Schizophrenic and wildly depressed prisoners themselves form a special threat to other prisoners even if other dangers are tried to be removed from the prison. A Lancet research study has revealed that “men in prison are five times more likely to commit suicide than those in the general population” (BBC 2005). It is certainly no small deal that there is an alarmingly high rate of mental health problems faced by prisoners in UK but the good aspect of this bleak situation is that it has also given rise to many initiatives to divert the mentally ill criminals away from prisons to mental health faculties. It is the result of such initiatives that latest research studies have identified prison suicide rates in England and Wales to fall slightly as of 2011. Though not much of a difference, decrease in suicide-related deaths from 61 in 2009 to 58 last year despite an increase in the number of prisoners signals some change (Press Association 2011). However, this is also true that the circumstances were sicker a decade back when one study after another confirmed the fact that suicide rate among prison’s young offenders was increasing alarmingly. The rate of prison suicides has fallen now compared to what was recorded back in 2000. Self-inflicted deaths among British prisoners reached the peak of 95 in early 2000s “when there was a spate of suicides at women’s prisons” (Stoddard 2010). According to a 2000 report, 17 year old Kevin Henson hanged himself in his cell in September and subsequently became the 12th person under 20 to kill himself in a British prison since the beginning of that year (Rayner 2000). It was a killing time for British jails back then and even now the situation is more or less the same in failing British prison systems to some extent. Majority of the critics has rightly blamed overcrowding to be the culprit behind suicide attempts made during imprisonment by the British inmates which often turn out to be fatal. Dangerous and antisocial were the words used to describe the condition of Dickensian jail by Thomas, a former civil servant, who protested against the tight rules and system of this jail in which Henson also committed suicide as mentioned before (Rayner 2000). The UK prisons are teeming with criminals both young and old and Crook from Howard League for Penal Reform claimed a decade back that “the numbers of teenagers going into prison had risen 10 per cent in the past three months” (Bennetto 2000). Dangerous and antisocial conditions are the direct result of overcrowding which underlines what some have named as killing time in British jails. According to 2000 reports, this jail was so swarmed with young offenders that as many as 100 of new offenders “aged 15 to 17 were being locked away for up to 22 hours a day in cells designed for older inmates” (Rayner 2000). According to another report, number of prisoners attempting suicide on average is identified to be twice that of those dying in custody (Joint Committee On Human Rights 2004). Ethics should be involved everywhere and there is definitely no ethics involved in imprisoning mentally ill criminals together with those who have no definite mental or personality disorders because it significantly raises the risk of prison suicides. 2007 can actually be called a killing time for British jails because as many as 92 self-inflicted deaths were reported to having been occurred in custody by prison management authorities and statistical data revealed by the Ministry of Justice identified 60 self-inflicted deaths to having been occurred in different British prison units both in 2008 and 2009 (Stoddard 2010). According to another report, as there were reported 92 self-inflicted deaths in England and Wales in 2007 in contrast to 67 in 2006, penal reform campaigners and the Conservatives blamed the government for this increase in prison suicides and connected it directly to overcrowding (Woodward 2008). Lately as of 2011, the Ministry of Justice announced that “there were 57 apparent self-inflicted deaths among prisoners in England and Wales” (justice.gov.uk 2012). The mentally ill inmates or those having personality disorders themselves also might commit suicide when not provided proper mental health services. Prisoners with history of drug abuse, self harm, and suicidal ideation should not be received into prisons, rather they should be driven towards mental health care centers (Shaw et al. 2011). According to a 9 year report about prison suicides in England and Wales published in 2011, out of 35% prisoners received into prison with histories of drug misuse, 29% did not receive an individual drug withdrawal treatment program which is exactly why prison suicide rate increases (Shaw et al. 2011). It is also worth mentioning that majority (more than 95%) of those committing suicide while imprisoned in UK jails is formed by men and the average age at death is reportedly 34 years old (Webb 2011). The UK government is often accused of sending a large number of youth in jails especially when they are already teeming with inmates. The blame laid on the UK government is largely based on relying on a “lynch-mob mentality by sending more young people to jail and creating Dickensian conditions in Britains biggest young offenders institutions” (Bennetto 2000). In another report is identified that “the prison overcrowding crisis has been blamed for a rise of nearly 40 per cent in the number of prisoners killing themselves” (Russell 2008). Overcrowding in turn leads to developing such conditions which force the inmates to idealize suicide and inflict death upon them. Majority of the prisoners who committed suicide in custody between 1990 and 1998 were reportedly “locked in their cells for 23 hours a day due to overcrowding” (BBC 1999). In this case, prisoners with mental health issues or personality disorders should be driven away from jails to rehab centers or hospitals where they could be treated satisfactorily and jail atmosphere for other inmates could be prevented from becoming dangerous and appalling. Moreover, learning from deaths in custody can help much and reveal invaluable secrets which may form building blocks of the prisoner suicide prevention strategy (justice.gov.uk 2011). Crime level cannot be reduced by saturating the prison cells but prison suicide rates definitely shoot up by overcrowding (Crook, cited in Bennetto 2000). Both the government and prison management authorities should acknowledge and respond to the fact that the pressure of overcrowding has horrific consequences and prison systems should be stopped from caving in to this pressure that seems to be building up always. Building up new units for housing new inmates and investing more money in this issue instead of propelling the offenders to those same old prison units which are already full to the brim can be a useful approach in addition to sorting out between mentally sick and mentally normal inmates. Sending the severely depressed and paranoid prisoners to mental health faculties can phenomenally ease the pressure on many prison unites in UK (Bennetto 2000). Concluding, this much remains clear from the above discussion that when the right kind of mental health services are not provided in timely fashion in prison faculties, even those prisoners with no mental health issues are at a great chance of caving in to the alarmingly rising pressure by committing suicide and that pressure is often created by prisons being used to accommodate too many people with mental health problems. Prison population surges raise threat of suicide attempts among inmates and there is no doubt in the reality that imprisoning mentally sick criminals with those who have no history of mental health issues can have a devastating effect. This can readily push the prisoners to commit suicide in order to save themselves from the horrors of imprisonment. There clearly exists a relationship between prison population and prison suicide because it has remained general consensus among many justices and health professionals that overcrowding rips off the prisoners of their natural human rights and denies them any space due to which they are forced to suffer the wrath of mentally ill inmates and commit suicide very often. 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