Assaults in women’s prisons triple in a decade to hit record excessive, with more violence than men’s jails

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Women’s jails are essentially the most violent they’ve ever been, with assaults tripling in a decade to hit an all-time excessive, in accordance to “shameful” new figures laying naked the havoc and despair in Britain’s overcrowded jail system.

With 488 assaults for each 1,000 inmates, the speed of violence in the three,600-strong women’s jail property – which noticed a complete of 1,630 assaults in the 12 months to September – is now far worse than amongst males, the place the speed is 40 per cent decrease.

While severe violence has traditionally been a lot worse in men’s prisons, the speed in the women’s property is now virtually equivalent for the primary time, and the best it has ever been, with 110 severe assaults, 39 of them in opposition to jail workers.

In one occasion illustrating the hyperlink between violence and unmet psychological well being wants, reported in May by the Independent Monitoring Board, two girls with psychological well being wants housed in the segregation unit at Peterborough had been mentioned to be so violent that it took 4 officers to unlock their cells.

“Many of our members are facing life changing injuries and something needs to change dramatically in how our prisons are run,” Prison Officers Association chief Steve Gillan instructed The Independent.

“Overcrowding and understaffing with no meaningful activity for prisoners leads to our members being assaulted on a regular basis,” he added. “It is totally unacceptable and we call on HMPPS and government to deal with it robustly so that our members are safe at work.”

Self-harm has additionally skyrocketed in women’s prisons by 38 per cent to a new peak of 5,988 incidents per 1,000 prisoners – 10 occasions greater than in the men’s jail property, regardless of self-harm and suicide each rising amongst males too, with 90 males dying by suicide in the previous 12 months.

“These figures paint a damning picture of a broken system which is letting women down at every turn,” mentioned Campbell Robb, chief government of main jail charity Nacro.

“Behind the shocking rises in self-harm and assaults are women who are desperate and deeply traumatised. The vast majority of women are sent to prison for non-violent offences yet a prison sentence sets off a grenade in their lives. They lose their job, home, children. Then at this time of crisis they are thrown into the inherently traumatising environment of prison.”

Many girls find yourself in jail after “falling via the cracks” of different social companies, mentioned Pia Sinha, chief government of the Prison Reform Trust, with prisons anticipated to deal with the implications of a “woeful lack of adequate mental health provision in the community”.

They are sometimes victims of crime and abuse, and sometimes endure from complicated psychological well being issues and drug habit, added Andrea Coomber KC, chief government of the Howard League for Penal Reform.

Echoing issues over prisons getting used as a so-called “place of safety” for girls, Ms Coomber instructed The Independent: “Too often, shortages in hospital places and community interventions mean that vulnerable women are ending up in jails instead of getting support.”

Once behind bars, overcrowding and understaffing in prisons imply prisoners are being given much less significant exercise and day trip of their cells, whereas typically being unable to entry the psychological well being help they want, consultants warned.

“Violence often arises when severely distressed women are having to live in conditions that re-trigger the trauma of abuse and neglect many of them have experienced,” mentioned Ms Sinha. “Despite all their best efforts, prison staff are not equipped to provide specialist, trauma informed services.”

“When prisons are this overcrowded, they become completely ill-equipped to deal with the scale of trauma and despair amongst the prison population. Self-inflicted deaths, self-harm and assaults are all up,” mentioned Ms Sinha, including: “We are failing these women and the staff that work with them.”

Katie*, who was seven weeks pregnant and on anti-depressants when she was despatched to jail, instructed The Independent: “On arrival I was told I needed to wait to see the routine doctor.

“That was two weeks. Two weeks of being locked in a cell, worried I’d be attacked. Spiralling thoughts. Withdrawals from medication. Worrying how I’d cope with a sentence that was sprung on me. Pregnant with my first baby and no idea what to expect.

“It’s suffocating. It’s terrifying. Nobody checked in with me. Nobody knew I had suffered with severe depression and had been suicidal a few years before I entered prison. I was left behind a steel door. The doctors didn’t offer me any therapy or alternative counselling. I was put back on anti-depressants but the issue at hand wasn’t met and I wasn’t supported in the most challenging time of my life. When I was most vulnerable.”

Another former prisoner, who described being “put in high pressure, dangerous situations, and in dangerous environments constantly” when first remanded to jail. She mentioned she was “not surprised” by the rise in self-harm, warning: “There isn’t enough resources in prison for people with mental health needs. It’s not a safe place for them to be.”

Women in their early 20s are most weak to self-harm in jail, in accordance to latest analysis by the Agenda Alliance.

“We know they do this to cope with the pain of their past, such as domestic abuse, poverty, addiction,” mentioned the charity’s chief government Indy Cross. “Prison worsens these problems, heaping homelessness, unemployment and child removal onto the complex set of problems they already face.”

Describing assaults as “a regrettable flipside of unaddressed mental health problems, lack of meaningful activity” and trauma-informed workers coaching, Ms Cross warned that with out tailor-made help, “these kinds of figures will persist”.

“How many times do we need to keep hearing such horror stories?,” she mentioned, including: “There’s no more time to wait. The time to act is now.”

While the federal government dedicated six years in the past to considerably decreasing the women’s jail inhabitants, the Howard League warned that present plans to increase the jail system embody a projected 40 per cent rise in the variety of girls behind bars “in a system that is clearly unable to meet their complex needs”.

The “exponential” rise in self-harm charges means “there can be no more excuses for the government’s failure to deliver” on these commitments, mentioned Kirsty Kitchen, head of coverage on the charity Birth Companions.

Ms Kitchen added: “But we mustn’t only look at what’s happening inside the prisons – we need investment in mental health services in the community too, so prison is not used as a ‘place of safety’ for want of alternatives, and so that women can get the support they need when they need it, to avoid criminalisation in the first place.”

Warning that “our prisons are at breaking point”, Labour’s shadow prisons minister Ruth Cadbury instructed The Independent that the rise in violence was “yet another sign of the crisis across our prison estate, with both prison staff and prisoners at serious risk”.

A Ministry of Justice spokesperson mentioned: “The number of women in prison has fallen dramatically since 2010 and we are continuing to invest millions into community services to steer female offenders away from jail and help get their lives back on track.

“However, for those women who have committed crimes which warrant a custodial sentence – many of whom have complex needs – we are transforming the mental support on offer in our jails, including tailored, round-the-clock care, extra face-to-face time with specialist staff and improved self-harm training for all frontline officers.”