Young male offenders aged 15-17 are 18 times more likely to kill themselves than boys in the general population, according to a report published this week, writes Maria Ahmed.
An analysis of 1,312 male suicides in prisons in England and Wales between 1978 and 2003 by the University of Oxford found that the overall suicide rate for male prisoners was five times higher than that of the general male population of similar ages.
Commenting on the report published in The Lancet, Juliet Lyon, director of the Prison Reform Trust, said: “These stark findings should prompt questions not only about the continuing failure of suicide prevention in Britain prisons, but most of all they should make us ask why the most vulnerable, mentally ill people are still being locked up in bleak, overcrowded institutions”.
The issue was highlighted this week when a judge summoned the health minister Rosie Winterton to explain why no NHS bed could be found for a mentally disabled young offender.
At a custody hearing at Snaresbrook Crown Court, Judge Nadine Radford refused to return Henry Nichol-Sey, of north London, to Feltham Young Offender Institution because of concerns about his welfare.
The court heard that Nichol-Sey had a mental age of six and had already tried to kill himself six times while on remand at Feltham YOI.
Judge Radford said: “This case is the biggest that is going on in court right now. It is not murder, drugs or rape, but the life of a young man caught in the legal system is being passed around several authorities.”
Winterton attended the hearing, but by then a secure unit place had been found for Nichol-Sey.
