Women abandoned in male jail.

HM Inspectorate of Prisons unannounced short follow up inspection of HMP Durham (Women’s Unit), conducted 7- 8 June 2005.

The Chief Inspector’s report covers the conditions in which six women were held at Durham prison. The six were left there after the prison’s transition to an all-male establishment. The rest, some 100, were moved out almost a year ago following an earlier report by the Inspectorate recommending closure.

Juliet Lyon, director of the Prison Reform Trust said:

“These forgotten women have been held in a kind of limbo for a year, marooned in the corner of a men’s jail. There has been almost no work, education, resettlement, exercise facilities and only very restricted contact with the outside world.

Last October, during a PRT visit to Durham prison, I met a woman prisoner covered in open cuts and scars lying on a mattress on her cell floor littered with blood-stained bedding and clothing. From outside the cell door also surrounded by blood-stained material, a male officer was doing his best to talk to and comfort her. The then Governor stated that this woman had been waiting for some time for a transfer to a secure hospital.

Following the Chief Inspector’s unannounced inspection in June a young women died in the prison on 21 August. The Chief Inspector gave a stark warning of the increased risk of suicide. Her report to the Home Secretary would have been in the hands of officials and ministers prior to this tragic death. The danger signals were clear. In the three months before the inspection there were seven ‘near miss’ suicides and records of women injuring themselves repeatedly.

What we need to know now is why the Chief Inspector’s warning was ignored. How this handful of vulnerable, hard to place women were left behind at Durham. How the buck was passed between those responsible in the Home Office and the Department of Health.”

ENDS

NOTES FOR EDITORS

1. The report states: “Three months before this inspection, representatives of the women’s team at headquarters had noted that distress levels were very high among the women and there was a real risk of suicide unless significant changes were made quickly. In the three months before the inspection, four women accounted for nearly a third of all self-harm incidents among the prison’s total population of over 700; and seven of the fifteen most serious suicide attempts in the prison as a whole had been carried out by women.”

2. The report criticises many aspects of the regime: staff often waking prisoners with hourly night-time checks, unnecessary strip searches, a lack of policies on drugs, race or suicide prevention and a mainly male staff contingent. The report also states: “Incidents of self-harm involving women were not properly discussed at the suicide prevention meeting of the whole prison.”

3. On 21 August a 20 year old woman in Durham died in an apparent suicide.

4. On 26 August 2005  the women’s prison population stood at 4,612. In the last decade the women’s population has more than doubled. Ten years ago in 1995 the average female prison population was 1,998. Five years ago in 1999 it stood at 3,355. In 2003, 13,000 women were received into prison.

5. Fourteen per cent of suicides in prison in 2004 (13 out of 95) were committed by women, yet they account for only six per cent of the average daily population.

6. There are currently 20 female prisons. In 2004 the Home Office announced plans to remove women from HMP Durham, HMP Winchester and Edmund’s Hill prison due to population pressures in the male estate. The rapid rise in the female prison population had previously led to four prisons, most recently HMP’s Downview and Buckley Hall, being re-roled from men’s prisons to women’s prisons.

7. At the end of September 2004 the average distance female prisoners were held from their home or committal court address was 62 miles. At the beginning of July 2004 just under half of all women in prison were held more than 50 miles from their home town or committal court address and nearly a quarter were held more than 100 miles away. With so many being held a long way from their homes visits from families are more difficult. One Home Office study found that only half the women who had lived with their children or been in contact prior to imprisonment had received a visit since going to prison.

8. Women in prison suffer from numerous mental health problems. Two-thirds of women show symptoms of at least one neurotic disorder such as depression, anxiety and phobias. More than half are suffering from a personality disorder. Among the general population less than a fifth of women suffer from these disorders. Half of the women in prison are on prescribed medication such as anti-depressants or anti-psychotic medicine and there is evidence that the use of medication increases whilst in custody.

9. Of all the women who are sent to prison, thirty-seven per cent say they have attempted suicide at some time in their life.

10. The number and rate of self-harm incidents is much higher amongst women than men. In 2003, 30 per cent of women were reported to have harmed themselves compared with six per cent of men. On average each woman who injured herself did so five times compared to twice for men. Hence while women make up just six per cent of the prison population they accounted for nearly half (46 per cent) of all reported self-harm incidents.

11. A survey carried out in 2001 found that nearly two-thirds of women in prison have a drug problem. An early study concluded that around 40 per cent could be diagnosed as harmful or dependent users of drugs.

12. One in four women in prison has spent time in local authority care as a child. Nearly 40 per cent of women in prison left school before the age of 16 years, almost one in ten were aged 13 or younger.

13. Over half the women in prison say they have suffered domestic violence and one in three has experienced sexual abuse.