Children, Prisons and Suicide - What is to be done?

While some quarters of the press revelled in descriptions of the misery and speculated on 'pacts' and 'causes', one of the better effects of the media coverage is that the Welsh government was pressed into action, and had to face up to the woefully inadequate counseling and support services for that have traditionally existed for young people.

Let us compare that response to the publication of suicide statistics concerning prison custody, which were published in January. Last year there were 92 suicides in our prisons, a 37% rise on last year's numbers. Of these 7 were young offenders and one was a juvenile. Prisons have long had higher suicide rates than the community, especially where young offenders are concerned. That is perhaps unsurprising, given the degree of problems that many young people placed in custody have; many lack the basic skills when it comes to reading and writing, have mental health problems and drug addiction, and lead chaotic and unhappy lives. But the rise in prison suicide is arguably driven by one factor beyond all else. The ever growing numbers we put in custody.

That numbers of people dying in British prisons is rising, in no small part due to the ever increasing numbers we incarcerate. On of my colleagues, Professor David Wilson has deemed this 'death at the hands of the state' arguing it should lead to an abolition of prison as currently constituted. His is a compelling book, and a compelling argument, but few seem ready to hear it.

Elsewhere the Howard League for Penal Reform have undertaken a series of further reports investigating different aspects of suicide and self-injury including highlighting the death of young people in custody. Yet the media have been less inclined to examine the conditions that lead young offenders to take their own lives. The youngest suicide in 2007 was Liam McManus. He was just 15 year old who hanged himself in custody last year while serving a sentence of only one month 14 days. Prison is where we seek to sweep away social problems, carelessly unaware of the damage it can do.

The press have been largely uninterested in these suicides, yet young men and women are taking their lives in custody at an alarming rate. If we have learnt a lesson from Bridgend, I hope that it is that prevention is necessary. To transfer that to prison, the way to stop suicides in custody is to stop locking up children unless it is absolutely necessary, and if we have to, to place them in specialist units and treat them not as adults or lost causes. This message might not be popular, but like the children in Bridgend, the children in custody are children too. Don't they deserve to be treated as such?