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INQUEST calls for bold action as deaths in prison rise again and levels of self-harm break records


Deborah Coles, Director of INQUEST said: "Every four days, a person in prison takes their own life. Levels of distress have never been higher with more than 152 recorded incidents of self-harm in prison every day.

The Government have long been on notice about the perilous state of our prisons. Yet, life saving recommendations from inquests and oversight bodies are systematically ignored. That the historically high numbers of deaths are allowed to continue is a national scandal.

Prison safety cannot be resolved by framing it as a drugs problem or weaponising staff through with PAVA spray. Punitive responses have not worked and will not work. Bold and decisive action is needed to tackle sentencing policy; reducing prison numbers; and redirecting resources to community services.”

 

Note from PDV!: Surveys of mental health issues in prison have demonstrated that a significant proportion of the prison population, in the 2002 national survey 50% of women and 64% of men (J Cold et al. 2002), have a diagnosis of one or more personality disorders. While most in the survey had the diagnosis of anti social personality disorder, emotionally unstable and paranoid personality disorder were also significant. Though the populations in prison has been aging, indicating that the proportion who would receive a personality disorder diagnosis might lower, it is still important to recognise that the mistreatment of people in prison will inevitably include mistreatment of people diagnosed with a personality disorder. When we acknowledge the issue that the people who are sentenced to prison are not necessarily the people who commit the most crime or the worst crime, rather the people that are most likely to be arrested, prosecuted and then sentenced, we must consider why people who meet the personality disorder diagnosis are imprisoned at such high rates. We must consider whether the stigma, and the denial or poor quality of care towards people who have the diagnosis, or the creeping use of "personality disorder traits" to describe distress without formal diagnosis contributes to behaviour that is considered criminal, and then worthy of arrest and imprisonment. Equally, the treatment of prisoners within the prison is not made equal. Those who work within the prison have their own biases enforced by the power that they wield, and the lack of care the majority of people have for incarcerated people.


"Personality disorder characterised prisoners who were more likely to cause management problems and indicated risk factors for subsequent social problems and recidivism on release. They were more likely to be UK born, less likely to have been employed, and more likely to have lived off crime. They had experienced a wider range of stressful life events, revealed poorer intellectual functioning, and had misused alcohol and drugs. Those with anti-social personality disorder were more likely to report periods of cellular (solitary) confinement and to have been given added days for disciplinary offences." (J Cold et al. 2002)


Also, when discussing issues such as self harm and suicide within the population of imprisoned women, it is not beyond reason to speculate that many of these women might be diagnosed with EUPD. I would be curious to see a report of psychiatric diagnosis of prisoners who self harm or kill themselves but I have not yet been able to find anything like it.

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