Long-term prisoners are offered support on release from prison but no such option exists for short-term prisoners leaving them vulnerable to isolation and even suicide. Claire McCarthy, from the Howard League for Penal Reform, looks at the problem of ex-prisoners at risk on the outside.
Lester Christopher Shore left Pentonville Prison around midday on 14 July 1999. By that evening he was dead. During his five months in prison Shore had been identified as highly vulnerable. He was a drug user. He had spent several periods on the prison's health care wing and had been placed on suicide watch on two occasions. He had a history of mental health problems and had previously been a patient in a psychiatric hospital. Days before his release a full psychiatric report was ordered, though it was never carried out.
In the weeks leading up to his release he had been refusing food and water, leading to the loss of almost half his body weight. As a result he was taken to hospital, suffering with malnutrition and dehydration. There he refused treatment.
Despite these obvious indicators of distress and mental instability, and despite the prison doctor's reassurance to Shore's parents that appropriate arrangements would be made, he was released on the day of his death, on his own, in a taxi. Before reaching his home he diverted his journey to a car park, where he leapt to his death.
Every year an unknown number of people (possibly as many as 50) take their own lives soon after being released from prison because the prison, probation and community-based services fail to support them.
Ex-prisoners have a complex range of problems, many of which are serious predicators to suicide. For example, an offender is five times more likely to be unemployed and four times more likely to suffer a mental illness than others in the community. The homelessness charity, Centrepoint, reports that 17 per cent of young people in their hostels and shelters have been in prison and that one-third of all homeless people have attempted suicide.
Despite these indicators of vulnerability, short sentence prisoners receive little or no preparation for release and no post-custodial supervision. Prisoners serving longer sentences are supervised on release but even here the probation service prioritises public protection over the welfare of the ex-prisoner.
Thousands of prisoners leave every year with nowhere to go and no support, except for a meagre discharge grant. A member of staff at Glen Parva Young Offenders' Institution, Leicester, describes the situation: "It is not an exaggeration to say that many young men walk out of here with a carrier bag. They have nowhere to go. No family. The only support network they have involves their drug dealer. It's no wonder they don't survive on the outside for very long."
There is little co-ordination between prisons and community-based services. Although prisons make referrals to community drug programmes, ex-prisoners find it hard to start again with support workers they do not know, and in many cases the relationship breaks down. There are even fewer referrals to community mental health teams. In most cases teams only find out about someone because they are in a casualty unit or police station. A psychologist working in a mental health team in east London says they receive prison referrals "very rarely". The psychologist adds that: "It's just so much better if we know about people before they are released. With one individual, who was released from Weare Prison, in Portland, Dorset, we were invited to go and be involved in a case conference before release and we were able to organise support for the client when he returned to London. But normally we just don't know about people."
Those serving sentences of more than 12 months are supervised by the probation service but this work is increasingly focused on probation areas meeting numerical targets for contact and completion of offending behaviour courses. The caring and welfare role of the probation service of old is very much out of fashion. For instance, Scott was 24 years old when his probation officer spoke to the Howard League. He has attempted suicide several times and regularly self-harms. Scott's probation officer told the Howard League that she felt it was nearly impossible for probation officers to support vulnerable people adequately because of the size of their caseloads and the pressure to focus on other things.
Resettlement has become the new buzzword of the criminal justice system. Previously known as "throughcare", it refers to the process of preparation for and support after release from prison. The primary tool is the supervision plan, which is to be devised by the probation officer in collaboration with the prisoner, before they leave prison. In reality, this is rarely the case. According to a recent Home Office report1 only 7 per cent of supervision plans had been written 15 days prior to release and only 74 per cent were done 15 days after release. In 2001, only 56 per cent of supervision plans clearly identified non offence-related needs and follow up work was undertaken on these issues in only 72 per cent of cases.
In light of this, it comes as no surprise that suicide prevention is hardly at the top of the National Probation Directorate's agenda. The directorate does not collect national statistics for those who end their own lives while under supervision and there are no national guidelines or policies on supervising individuals at risk of suicide.
In a newly published report on the subject of suicide after prison release,2 the Howard League argues for the creation of a safer supervision policy group within the directorate. The group would record and monitor all deaths, identify trends, set targets for reduction and spread good practice in supporting vulnerable offenders.
For unlike a death in custody, a suicide after prison release triggers no automatic investigation. As a response to calls from Lester Shore's parents for a full investigation into his death, a Home Office spokesperson told the local newspaper: "The Home Office always looks into a death in custody, but because Mr Shore died after he was released from prison an investigation is not required."3
Probation areas may undertake internal investigations but they are not independent, and the findings are not publicly available. A senior probation officer told the Howard League that: "In the interests of good practice we hold investigations and reviews about all deaths, mostly for the benefit of staff. But even when we develop a new policy or process which we think is an improvement there is no way of sharing best practice." This means that valuable lessons about these tragic cases are being lost.
While deaths, particularly suicides, in custody rightly attract considerable attention, when ex-prisoners are desperate or disturbed enough to end their own lives it goes virtually unnoticed. It is clear that there must be a new focus on the complex needs of ex-prisoners as a group. There needs to be partnership working between prisons, probation and social services, local authorities and the voluntary sector in order to do more to ensure that those who leave prison are viewed as more than just a potential threat to the community. The Howard League believes that society must accept that many ex-prisoners are victims too; 56 per cent of young offenders have been in local authority care, many have suffered physical or sexual abuse, been failed by the education system or have suffered mental ill health. Post-custodial supervision and care must be framed in this context.
No one denies that the public is entitled to be protected. However, it must be remembered that those who have been in custody are also members of the community, and if their life experiences or personal circumstances make them a potential danger to themselves, they deserve protection too.
Claire McCarthy is a policy officer at the Howard League for Penal Reform
References
1 Home Office, Through the Prison Gate, HMSO, 2001
2 Claire McCarthy, Suicide and Self-harm Prevention: Following Release from Prison Howard League for Penal Reform, 2002. Copies are available from the Howard League on 020 7249 7373 or through its website at www.howardleague.org
3 'Prison probe call by parents', Uxbridge Gazette, 16 August 2000
