Lorely Burt MP

How women's prisons can reduce distress and suicide

The Howard League for Penal Reform today (20 June) published a report, 'Care, concern and carpets', calling on the Prison Service to develop first night in custody centres in women's prisons to help reduce self-harm and suicide.

The immediate aftermath of a person's arrival at prison is a time of heightened risk of self-harm and suicide. 50% of those who take their own lives in prison do so during the first month.

First night centres are put in place by prisons to help ease transition into the prison. The Howard League for Penal Reform's research shows that a dedicated wing, or unit, where all new prisoners spend their first 48 hours at the prison can make a real contribution to saving lives. The charity argues that such facilities should be run by dedicated staff and include support and assistance from fellow prisoners. They should be furnished in a far less harsh way than normal prison accommodation and provide information and immediate contact with families and children. Their overall aim should be to reduce the distress that many people feel at being sent to prison.

The charity's report demonstrates how a properly resourced first night centre - such as those developed by Holloway and Styal prisons - can be used to ease the immediate impact of imprisonment on highly vulnerable women.

One prisoner told the Howard League for Penal Reform about her experience of Holloway's first night centre:

'Andrea' had never previously been in prison, and described how absolutely distraught she had been on entering prison. She told us that had she been taken straight from reception to the main residential wings, where she was now located, she would have felt unable to cope. In her view, the First Night Centre allowed women to find themselves and get into a routine. She thought the Centre saved a lot of heartache for women arriving at Holloway and said it helped to make people feel more secure in the first few days in prison. She said that if the Centre did not exist, there would be a lot more self-harming. She thought the Centre was successful and summed up the philosophy as "care, concern and carpets".

The report argues that first night in custody arrangements are especially important for women prisoners, who are a particularly vulnerable group within the prison system, with extremely high levels of mental illness, drug and alcohol abuse and histories of physical and sexual abuse.

Key recommendations include:

· The establishment of a first night in custody centre in each women's prison that takes prisoners directly from court (so-called local women's prisons)

· That a formal strategy for managing first night in custody should be instituted in every prison, as part of a wider whole-prison approach to reducing distress and harm

· Cleaner, kinder, fairer and more streamlined reception processes

· A proper period of induction into the prison lasting a fortnight

· A rolling out of first night centres to men's local prisons, which disproportionately experience high rates of suicide

Speaking today, Frances Crook, Director of the Howard League for Penal Reform said

"The majority of women in prison are not dangerous and should be managed safely in the community. However, whilst they are still being imprisoned it is incumbent on the Prison Service to keep them safe, and first night in custody centres - such as those the Howard League for Penal Reform saw at Holloway and Styal prisons - can play a critical role in achieving this. We want to ensure that each prison that receives women directly from court is properly resourced to provide a dedicated first night centre. First night in custody centres can only ever mitigate, not prevent women from taking their own lives in prison and courts still have to recognise the danger of sending women to prison"

Commenting on the Howard League Report, Liberal Democrat Women and Equalities spokeswoman Lorely Burt MP said:

"I welcome this report. Having worked as a Prison Officer and Assistant Governor in women's prisons I understand only too well how distressing and shocking the first night 'inside' can be for women.

"Women are used to autonomy in their lives: making decisions all day about small but important things from how their day will be structured to what to feed the kids for tea.

"Being separated from their loved ones is punishment enough: we should help then to acclimatise to something so very alien as sympathetically as possible."

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Relevant Statistics

The women's prison population increased by 147% from 1,804 in 1994 to 4,452 in 2004. On 9 June 2006 there were 4,461 women and girls in prison.

Women prisoners are a particularly vulnerable group in the prison system. The Chief Inspector of Prisons found that:

· 80% of women prisoners suffer from diagnosable mental health problems

· 66% will be drug dependent or use alcohol to dangerous excess

· 50% will have experienced domestic violence

· 33% will have suffered from sexual assault

Self-inflicted deaths

The number of self-inflicted deaths of women prisoners has grown significantly in recent years. For example, between 1978 and 2001 there were 40 self-inflicted deaths of women prisoners. In the three years 2002 to 2004 there were 36 such deaths. In 2004 this had fallen to four; to date this year there have been two.

Self-harm

55% of all self-harm incidents in prison are carried out by women and girls, even though they make up only 5% of the prison population. This table shows the number of self-harm incidents and average population in 2005 for selected women's prisons (some prisoners are multiple self-harmers)