Today INQUEST have published a report ‘exposing dangerous, longstanding failures across the prison estate and historically high levels of deaths in custody’. Deaths in prison: A national scandal offers insight and analysis into findings from 61 prison inquests in England and Wales in 2018 and 2019.
The report details safety failures including mental and physical healthcare, communication systems, emergency responses, and drugs and medication. It also looks at the wider statistics and historic context, showing the repetitive and persistent nature of such failings.
Every four days a person takes their life in prison, and the report suggests that the rising numbers of ‘natural’ and unclassified deaths are ‘too often’ found to relate to serious failures in healthcare, and that a lack of government action on official recommendations is leading to preventable deaths. With case studies of deaths and inquest findings, the report tells the harrowing human stories behind the statistics.
The report sets out recommendations to improve safety and prevent future deaths including:
- a new national oversight mechanism, to monitor and enforce the implementation of recommendations from investigations, inquests and inquiries on state related deaths,
- significantly reducing the prison population,
- reallocating resources from criminal justice to community-based health and welfare services.
Deborah Coles, Director of INQUEST, said: “This report exposes indefensible levels of neglect and despair in prison. Officials and Ministers repeat the empty words that ‘lessons will be learned’. Yet the recommendations of coroners, the prison ombudsman and inspectorate are being systematically ignored. This is a national scandal.
“The personal stories of those who died show prisons failing in their duty of care towards people long failed by struggling health, education, welfare and social services. The system is also failing their families whose trauma over deaths is compounded by the struggle for truth, justice and change. In the long term, protecting both prisoners and the public from more harm will require investment in our communities, not ineffective punitive policies.”