New UN report should be a spur for action on prison deaths

With a sharp increase in the number of ‘largely preventable’ deaths in custody, it is time for a renewed effort to implement reforms in the prison’s strategy white paper

A new UN report describing deaths in custody as a “largely preventable… silent global tragedy,” demands serious attention in light of the fact 322 people died in prison in England and Wales in 2022, an increase of 12% over the previous year and over 100 more than in 2012. One quarter were deaths by suicide.

Crucially, the report by UN special rapporteur Morris Tindall-Binz reminds us that the state is responsible for the lives of individuals deprived of their liberty, and that it is not acceptable to cite financial constraints or logistical problems to justify a failure to deliver international minimum standards of care.?

The report reminds us also that the more people in prison, the more people will die in prison.

England and Wales now have more people in prison serving life sentences than Austria, Belgium, France, the Netherlands, Russia, and Sweden combined. Meanwhile, Scotland and England and Wales have the highest imprisonment rates in Western Europe.

Large numbers of inmates are serving well beyond the sentence handed down by the courts and recent changes have reduced access to the opportunity for indeterminate prisoners to progress to open prisons.

As the UN report points out, in the face of longer sentences, the duty and imperative to ensure human rights are upheld and the prison regime promotes rehabilitation - in line with international law - is all the more compelling.

However, the most recent Prison Reform Trust Prison Factfile and the recent HMIP Annual Report, starkly highlight that many of our prisons are failing to deliver some very important elements of the UN Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners, also known as the Mandela Rules. These specify how prison regimes must ensure optimum time out of cell, purposeful activity, access to education and vocational training, work experience and timely access to mental health services.

?Wealth of evidence

While rates of self-harm in our prisons remain at historical highs and the rate of suicide is more than six times higher than in the general population, there is a wealth of evidence, best practice, thousands of (unimplemented) recommendations from prison inspectors, coroners and death in custody investigations, telling us what we need to do.

Tindall-Binz talks about the high levels of distress, hopelessness, and sense of disempowerment that prisoners may experience. We know that access to a properly purposeful regime, educational opportunities, vocational training, work experience, sport and leisure activities, adequate and timely mental health and addiction services, will help to keep prisoners safe, as well as encouraging individual responsibility - and providing the hope and belief that underpins the capacity to rehabilitate. ?

The December 2021 Prisons Strategy White Paper set out a comprehensive plan for prison reform with a 10-year vision that includes a series of two-year commitments which - if fully delivered – should significantly reduce the vulnerabilities that are known to lead to deaths in detention.

These include education, vocational and work transformation initiatives; improved drug dependency programmes; resettlement initiatives, fast track career development schemes for staff and an opportunity for governors to earn enhanced autonomy.

What is now urgently needed, for both human and financial reasons, is full implementation of these two-year commitments across the whole prison estate.

My first role in Criminal Justice was as a member of the Northern Ireland Policing Board set up after The Good Friday Agreement to oversee the implementation of the blue print for policing reform drawn up by Chris Patten. This was hugely challenging, but ultimately successful because a proper implementation plan was prepared and published.

Learning from Patten, the Northern Ireland Prison Service (NIPS), later developed its own implementation plan. The report into the appalling death of prisoner Colin Bell in 2008 was debated in Northern Ireland Assembly, with all parties subsequently agreeing that prison reform should form part of the Hillsborough Agreement, following devolution of justice.

Today, Northern Ireland prisons still face many challenges, but substantial progress has been made and it is the case that the imprisonment rate for NI is 91 per 100,000 population compared with the 136 per 100,000 in Great Britain.

Given the impact and legacy of the conflict in Northern Ireland on prison culture and practice and the related reform challenges, there is an important lesson here: a report or white paper is only as good as the change it delivers on the ground.

There are currently thousands of examples of good practice and innovative approaches in the UK. It remains the case, however, that 18 months after the publication of the White Paper, HM Inspectorate of Prisons continue to be highly critical of the amount of time prisoners are spending locked up and the lack of purposeful activity.?

In his introduction to a joint HMIP and Ofsted Report published last week, the Chief Inspector notes that 12 months ago inspections found there was, “a widespread failure and staggeringly high level of illiteracy in prisons” that interferes with daily life in prison and ability to get work.?One year on, “things have not improved at anything like the rate we would have expected,” he said.?

All of which suggests that the approach to delivering the White Paper two-year commitments and prison healthcare development initiatives need to be revisited.

Implementation is key to turning around the lives of those who typically enter prison with much greater social, economic, and healthcare challenges than the rest of the population. It is also central to finally reducing the large number of avoidable deaths in detention. ??

This month, I was privileged to join the Independent Advisory panel on Deaths in Custody (IAPDC), a non-departmental public body co-sponsored by the Ministry of Justice, Home Office and Department of Health and Social Care, to provide advice and expertise to the Ministerial Board on Deaths in Custody, in order to prevent deaths in custody.

Deaths in detention cause unimaginable distress for the families left behind. As a prisoner ombudsman, family questions were always at the heart of the death investigations I led. Delivering reform on the ground is complex and challenging, but the IAPDC has a wealth of knowledge and practical experience. I look forward to working with the Panel to support the efforts of those intent on delivering change.

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Pauline McCabe is an expert on criminal justice and currently sits on the Independent Advisory panel on Deaths in Custody. She formerly led the investigation of 29 deaths in custody as Prisoner Ombudsman in Northern Ireland and was a member of the Northern Ireland Policing Board.

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#prisons #prisonreform #deathsincustody #whitepaper #IAPDC #DICfamilies #prisonerconditions #Mandela #specialrapporteur

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