Articles: Self-harm hits record level in jails
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Record numbers of prisoners are deliberately injuring themselves because they cannot cope with prison life, a report warns today.
The penal reform group the Howard League said there were more than 7,000 recorded incidents of self-harming in prisons in England and Wales in the year to March 1999 - a 140% increase since 1991.
The rate of self-harm among female prisoners was 5.5 times higher than for males, and young prisoners were also at greater risk.
Some prisons recorded hundreds of incidents; 479 were logged at Doncaster prison, 370 at Elmley near Sheerness, Kent, and 305 at Wandsworth, south London.
The Howard League said most incidents involved inmates cutting themselves with razors or other implements, and warned that flaws in the way data was recorded meant the official figures could hide a much bigger problem.
The league's director, Frances Crook, blamed the problem on the fact that vulnerable people sent to prison were spending hours locked in their cells.
Although some prisons, such as Holloway, Durham and Norwich, were found to operate good policies to deal with self-harm, too many were "warehouses" for non-violent offenders who need not be in jail.
She added: "These people need help and understanding. Instead, their actions are trivialised, ignored or dismissed as a normal part of prison life. No prison officer whose son or daughter harmed themselves would consider it to be normal behaviour. It should not be considered normal for prisoners either."
The penal reform group the Howard League said there were more than 7,000 recorded incidents of self-harming in prisons in England and Wales in the year to March 1999 - a 140% increase since 1991.
The rate of self-harm among female prisoners was 5.5 times higher than for males, and young prisoners were also at greater risk.
Some prisons recorded hundreds of incidents; 479 were logged at Doncaster prison, 370 at Elmley near Sheerness, Kent, and 305 at Wandsworth, south London.
The Howard League said most incidents involved inmates cutting themselves with razors or other implements, and warned that flaws in the way data was recorded meant the official figures could hide a much bigger problem.
The league's director, Frances Crook, blamed the problem on the fact that vulnerable people sent to prison were spending hours locked in their cells.
Although some prisons, such as Holloway, Durham and Norwich, were found to operate good policies to deal with self-harm, too many were "warehouses" for non-violent offenders who need not be in jail.
She added: "These people need help and understanding. Instead, their actions are trivialised, ignored or dismissed as a normal part of prison life. No prison officer whose son or daughter harmed themselves would consider it to be normal behaviour. It should not be considered normal for prisoners either."