Any death in custody is a tragic event. The Government are committed to learning from such events and reducing the number of self-inflicted deaths in prison custody. The National Offender Management Service has a broad, integrated and evidence-based prisoner suicide prevention and self-harm management strategy that seeks to reduce the distress of all those in prison. This encompasses a wide spectrum of prison and Department of Health work around such issues as mental health, substance misuse and resettlement. Any prisoner identified as at risk of suicide or self-harm is cared for using the Assessment, Care in Custody and Teamwork (ACCT) procedures.
Research on prisons and prison deaths has highlighted the early period of custody as a particularly vulnerable period for self-inflicted deaths. A lot of work has been put into reducing the number of such deaths in general, as well as specifically, in early custody. The following table details the number of self-inflicted deaths that occurred within seven days of commencing custody. Some prisons hold both adults and young offenders; therefore the figures are broken down by the age profile of the prison.
Type of prison 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 Adult 14 19 22 20 6 20 18 23 13 6 10 9 Adult/YOI 0 0 1 0 1 3 0 0 0 0 0 0 YOI 1 3 2 1 1 0 1 0 0 0 0 0
The Prison Service definition of self-inflicted deaths is broader than the legal definition of suicide and includes all deaths where it appears that a prisoner has acted specifically to take their own life. This inclusive approach is used in part because inquest verdicts are often not available for some years after a death (some 20 per cent. of these deaths will not receive a suicide or open verdict at inquest). Annual numbers may change slightly from time to time as inquest verdicts and other information becomes available.