Suicide risk goes unheeded by courts

Judges are ignoring the high risk of self-harm and suicide of
offenders and sending them to prisons unable to care adequately for
them.

Giving evidence to the joint committee on human rights deaths in
custody inquiry Deborah Coles, co-director of campaign group
Inquest said there was clear evidence that sentencers knew about
offenders’ vulnerabilities but chose to send them to prisons
anyway.

“Maybe it is a question of where else to send them, but they are
well aware of the serious risk these people present,” she
said.

Inquiries into deaths in custody fail to address sentencing policy
and the role courts play when an offender is imprisoned and
subsequently takes their life, she added.