A serious increase in the level
of self-harm incidents in prisons, and generally poor levels of
information about wider matters concerning mental health in
places of detention, are among the issues that have prompted the
House of Commons Justice Committee to launch an inquiry,
Mental Health in Prison.
Between 2010 and 2020 the rate
of self-harm incidents in prisons more than doubled from 318
incidents per 1000 prisoners (a total of 26,983 incidents) to 741
per 1000 prisoners (a total of 61,153 incidents).
However, apart from statistics
on self-harm and self-inflicted deaths, there is very limited
data on the current levels of mental health need in prisons. In
2017 the National Audit Office said:
“The data on how many people in
prison have mental health problems and how much government is
spending to address this is poor”.
Nevertheless, most research
suggests that people in prison are more likely to suffer from
mental health problems than those in the wider community. This is
because of several factors, including:
· social and
personal issues such as unemployment, substance misuse or
trauma;
· being in prison
can exacerbate poor well-being because prisoners are less able to
manage their own day-to-day lives; and
· many prisoners move in or out of prison, or
between prisons, making access to healthcare more
problematic.
Some of these factors have been
further exacerbated by the Covid-19 pandemic and the subsequent
lockdown in prisons and the wider community.
The Justice Committee inquiry
will seek to understand the scale of mental health need within
prisons, identify what support exists and whether there are any
gaps in provision.
It is expected that following
the Committee’s call for written evidence there will be one or
more public oral evidence sessions to gather further testimony.
It is likely the Committee will invite a Minister, senior
officials, experts in mental health issues and possibly other
stakeholders to testify. It is provisionally expected that a
report on this inquiry will be published in July
2021.
