Suicides (From The Northern Echo)

Suicides

7:53pm Tuesday 14th February 2012 in Letters

YET another inmate in our overcrowded prison system has committed suicide. This minor tragedy is judged sufficiently newsworthy as to merit a small paragraph on page nine of The Northern Echo (Sat, Feb 11). Suicide in jail is not front page news.

There were 57 suicides in our prisons in 2011 - more than one a week. A further 12 prisoners have taken their lives in January 2012. Two were aged just aged 15 and 17.

The suicide rate for men in prison is five times greater than that for men in the community. Boys aged 15 to 17 are a staggering 18 times more likely to take their lives in prison.

Prisoners, for understandable reasons, may not be first in line to arouse public sympathy. Whatever the reason for their sentence, they are individuals towards whom our society has a duty of care.

Every death matters. Prison staff already work hard to prevent self-harm, but we need to urgently reassess how we can intervene with people at risk of suicide.

This is a measure of our humanity. As Dostoyevsky observed over a century ago: "The degree of civilisation in a society can be judged by entering its prisons."

Michael Teague

Lecturer in Criminology,

University of Teesside.