Custody review to create youth suicide prevention strategy

As part of his independent review into self-inflicted deaths in custody Lord Toby Harris has launched a consultation to look for ways to better support 18- to 24-year-olds in custody who are at risk of suicide.

Issues the review is looking at include information sharing, staff and prisoner relationships and family contact.

In addition, staff training and how to improve targeting of those at greatest risk will be considered in the review.

Groups of young people who are most at risk include those with mental health issues, drug and alcohol addiction, have suffered bereavement or have communication disorders.

Lord Harris, who was asked in February by Justice Secretary Chris Grayling to carry out the review, said: “All self-inflicted deaths are a tragedy and those that occur whilst individuals are under the protection of the state must be subject to the most thorough scrutiny.

“I am determined that this review will pull together the key learning from these deaths so that we can help ensure that 18- to 24-year-olds, and indeed vulnerable people in all age groups, including children, do not continue to die when they are under the protection of the state.”

Juliet Lyon, director of the Prison Reform Trust, urged bereaved families to take part in the consultation and for it to also consider the long-term, underlying issues that lead young people to offend.

She said: “The scope of the review should extend well beyond the short journey from the court to prison. The review has the potential to go further than coroners are able, and many would like, to take account of how a young person first got into trouble, underlying vulnerability or history of abuse or neglect and the sentencing decisions that led to imprisonment.”

Latest figures show that between April 2007 and December 2013 there were 84 recorded self-inflicted deaths among 18- to 24-year-olds in custody. This age group is seen as particularly vulnerable within the prison population, accounting for a fifth of all self-inflicted deaths during that period.

Following the consultation’s end on 18 July Lord Harris will look to develop a series of recommendations to be presented to the National Offender Management Service.