In March this year, three prisoners took their own lives, within three weeks of each other, in a single prison – Lowdham Grange. The proximity of the deaths to each other is unusual, but suicides inside prisons are not.

Historically, HMPPS tended not to release official figures regarding the numbers of suicides within prisons. But with an increasing public awareness of the issue, it appears things may have slightly changed.

It is still the case that they do not publish rates of prisoner suicide. However, alongside their quarterly Safety in Custody statistics, which include the numbers of recorded self-harm incidents and assaults, they now release the numbers of self-inflicted deaths each year.

To be clear, not all self-inflicted deaths will be intentional suicide. Many self-inflicted deaths will be drug overdoses, where it is not always possible to unpick whether the intention was to die. Not least when dosages of drugs are unknown to the users, and the effects of more available drugs like Spice are unpredictable.

But, these figures are the best we have to go on. In 2022, of the 301 deaths in custody, 74 were self-inflicted. Put another way, if you were to die in prison, there is a 25% chance it would be self-inflicted.

In the wider UK public, of the 586,334 recorded deaths in 2021, 5,583 were by suicide. That’s 1% of deaths. There is a clear discrepancy here.

What’s more, these suicide figures exist on a background of prisoners having far worse health outcomes than the general public. Male prisoners have an average life expectancy of 53, compared to the national average of 86-88. That suicide and self-inflicted deaths represent such a staggeringly high proportion of all deaths within custody, is alarming.

Of more concern, is why so little is being done to change a system which so obviously and so clearly generates and exacerbates this problem. 

Things like cross government, multi-agency strategies aimed to reduce suicide emerged in governments past. Minsters for Mental Health and Suicide Prevention were installed. Flashy sounding targets of ‘Zero Suicide’ were set within healthcare trusts. Yet, the rate of suicides within prisons remains stubbornly high.

With a penal system so inherently flawed, addicted to punishment and retribution, it seems that no amount of window dressing policy will shift these tragic numbers. A system impervious to all the big ideas, good will, and hard work of invested and dedicated professionals.

Prisons ingest those in mental distress, who often commit their crimes as a result of a mental illness, diagnosed or not. With the death penalty long abolished, judges place these individuals into prisons, to protect the rest of us. They perhaps even think that the prison system will be a place of safety for those in their court, with their chaotic lives in need of fix. At least in there they might have some stability, and the ability to seek treatment for their illnesses.

But arrive in prison, and your regular psychiatric medication is stopped. It’s not allowed, per NHS guidelines. Designed by committee, to benefit the security department of the prison, rather than the patient usually prioritised above all else in traditional healthcare settings.

Despite the incredible numbers prisoners with mental health issues, psychiatric support within is minimal. Through the increasingly used ACCT process, psychiatric assessment is delegated to prison staff, who are not trained or equipped to judge if someone is mentally unwell, or in danger of suicide.

For contrast, if you were sectioned instead of imprisoned, you’d receive your observations from clinicians, and have psychiatrist designed management plans within hours. Whilst the rates of suicide within secure hospitals are not zero, they are considerably lower than in prisons, despite the increased likelihood of severe mental health issues.

But even if we solved prison healthcare overnight, there remains the nature of prison itself. What separates suicide from other causes of death, is its sudden and unexpected course. Usually, those who take their own lives are not known to mental health services. This is where the excessively punishing insult of a prison sentence becomes lethal.

The incidents of self-harm and assaults within prisons, recorded by HMPPS, show the grim and ever-present unfit state of prions, which surely contributes to the high rates of suicide within.

Prisons are designed to be punishing, and regimes torturous. The risk factors for suicide – isolation, withdrawing from usual activities, unemployment, lack of family contact, financial distress, are all inherent to the prison experience.

We still appear to be keeping many prisoners in their cells for 23 hours of each day. Family visits remain elusive for many. Purposeful activity is severely lacking in many prisons. Gym visits and other activities are restricted and cancelled last minute. And many subsist on minimal income whilst battling inflationary pressures on the canteen list.

And this does not even cover the bullying, extortion, abuse, and other abhorrent behaviour that persists inside, leading many to live lives in fear, not leaving the cell even if the door is open.

This is all part of the package deal that prisons are beholden to. Prisons are meant to be punishing, a large swathe of the electorate believes. Whilst those in power will shake their heads, and sympathetically state that each death in custody is a tragedy, and that steps will be put in place to ensure it never happens again, we know that to be an admission that nothing will be done. Because nothing can be done, whilst we remain tethered to the concept of punishing criminals, rather than fixing the issues that create criminals.

Often those contemplating taking their own lives feel the world would be better off without them. That they are a burden to their loved ones, and ending it will somehow free everyone else from them. But when we send someone to prison, we are quite literally attempting to make the world a better place, by removing them from it.

So whilst we may have abolished the death penalty, within prisons it still exists. We have simply outsourced it to the individual.