‘The human toll’: Highlighting the unacknowledged harms of prison suicide which radiate across stakeholder groups

Abstract

Internationally, prisoner mortality rates are up to 50% above those in the community. Although prisoner deaths are frequent and have significant implications across a broad range of stakeholder groups, these harms are rarely acknowledged. We address this by presenting original data from semi-structured interviews with 19 senior Prison Service staff (representing 8 prisons and 11 regions) and 16 Ombudsman investigators in England and Wales. These professional groups have received limited consideration in previous research. Without negating implications for bereaved families and other prisoners, we demonstrate that scholars have grasped neither the impacts of prisoner deaths on investigators, nor the extent of the harms experienced through investigations. All stakeholders benefit from reducing prisoner suicides, but death investigations do not enable stakeholders’ ‘shared ground’ to be mobilised. Currently, death investigations compound the harms of deaths.

The Cruel Optimism of International Prison Regulation: Prison Ontologies and Carceral Harms

“…These combine to create an intergenerational effect of prison on future adults' mental health and interaction with the prison system-65% of prisoners' sons are later subject to criminalization (Kincaid, Roberts, and Kane 2019). Prison staff are themselves harmed by working in the stressful prison environments, in particular because of the proximity to the inevitable and distressing events of prisoner suicides (Banwell- Moore et al, 2022).…”

Profiles of vulnerability for suicide and self-harm in UK prisoners: Neurodisability, mood disturbance, substance use, and bullying

“…Ultimately, there is serious under-resourcing of prison mental health care [ 4 ]. As well as acute distress for incarcerated people and their families, prisoner suicide and self-harm also has a critically harmful impact on the wellbeing of prison staff [ 5 , 6 ]. To address these issues, this study utilised administrative screening data from adult male prisoners on entry to a category B prison in Wales, UK to determine the individual risk factors most associated with reporting historic suicide attempts and self-harm on entry to prison, in order to characterise a broader profile of vulnerability which might be used to inform allocation of limited mental health resources in prisons.…”

“…Witnessing or being proximal to prisoner suicide can have a transformative effect on prison staff, with psychological impacts including distress, grief, shame, desensitisation, and PTSD, and a culture of stigmatisation meaning that officers are unlikely to seek support [ 6 ]. These traumatic experiences can impact staff behaviour, with staff becoming disengaged and emotionally distant, and contribute to vicious cycles where staff have an impaired ability to support prisoners in mental health crises [ 5 ]. Additionally, risk of compassion fatigue and burnout in prison staff is elevated by multiple exposure to traumatic experiences such as witnessing suicide fatalities and attempts [ 9 ].…”

(Re)constructing Prisoner Death Investigations: A Case Study of Suicide Investigations from England and Wales

“…Prisoner death investigations, underpinning legal frameworks, and evidence bases have not attracted attention reflecting their importance and harm reduction potential and remain ripe for development across legal frameworks (Correctional Service Canada 2018;Tomczak and McAllister 2021). Given the harms and costs of prisoner deaths (Roulston et al 2021;Banwell-Moore et al 2022), establishing how investigations could play a more effective preventative role is an urgent, essential task. We assemble some of the first evidence illustrating how investigators construct prisoner deaths in England and Wales and explore the implications of investigators' constructions.…”