Lack of basic care for women in prison leading to self-harm, inspector warns

A lack of “basic care” for women in prisons causes such distress that some inmates resort to harming themselves, inspectors have warned amid rising levels of self-harm in jails.

Inspectors have revealed “deeply depressing” findings into female prisons as rates of self-harm are 8.5 times higher than male jails, including a “bizarre rule” set to be changed that does not allow women to wash their own underwear using washing machines.

In a report published on Wednesday following a review of four jails, chief prisons inspector Charlie Taylor urged for more to be done urgently to help women behind bars cope.

‘Vicious cycle’

The review detailed how many prison officers are inexperienced and lack training, and end up in a “vicious cycle” where they spend a lot of time helping women in crisis that they are unable to provide other support to prisoners to stop them from deteriorating.

Measures such as physical restraint and constant supervision sometimes needed for acutely unwell or chronically self-harming prisoners were considered “too common” by inspectors, who were not assured their use was always justified.

Mr Taylor said: “There is no doubt that our prisons contain some very unwell women who are expressing their distress through repeated and risky self-harm.

“Dedicated mental health provision is critical but prison staff also have a vital role to play. Disappointingly, this report highlights a lack of basic care to help women cope day-by-day which, for some, is a then cause of self-harm.

“Now is the time for urgent and determined action.”

Self-harm

The watchdog highlighted that in 10 years from 2013 to 2023 the rates of self-harm in women’s prisons rose from 1,545 to 5,624 per 1,000 prisoners indicating the level of distress among inmates.

Shortcomings on opportunities for women to stay in contact with loved ones including children were also flagged, including visits being too short and phone credit often not being available in the first few days in prison.

Watchdog chiefs found the range of support was “far more limited” than in some men’s prisons despite a higher level of need.

The report said: “In three of the four prisons we visited, about a third of the women were over 50 miles from home and at one of the sites it was over half (data was not available at one of the jails).

“Additionally, about a third of all women did not receive face-to-face visits. Leaders were not doing enough to promote contact and make visiting easier: some visit sessions only lasted 60 minutes and at one site they only ran during the afternoons.”

The Ministry of Justice has been contacted for comment.