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.

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.”

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.

It comes after a Ministry of Justice report in 2023 also said the “number of incidents and rate of self-harm in the female estate are now at the highest level” since records began in 2004, in relation to figures in the 12-month period ending in March that year.

Wednesday’s report also highlighted shortcomings on opportunities for women to stay in contact with loved ones including children, such as 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.”

Reacting to the watchdog’s report, Nicola Drinkwater from charity Women in Prison said its findings lay bare the traumatising environments in prison that worsens women’s mental ill-health, learning to “alarming levels” of distress and self-harm.

“We know from our frontline work that mental ill-health can both drive women’s offending and be a consequence of criminalisation and imprisonment,” she said.

“Rather than trapping women in a cycle of trauma and harm, we must invest in specialist, community-based support that prevents contact with the justice system in the first place.”

Justice Secretary Shabana Mahmood responded to the report, branding it “shocking” and a “wake-up call”.

“Many female prisoners are victims and over half are mothers. For most women, the prisons this government inherited are not working,” she said.

“We must do things differently, which is why, as part of our Plan for Change to make our streets safer, we have launched a new Women’s Justice Board to reduce the number of women in prison, and better support those who must still be imprisoned.”

The Women’s Justice Board, which met for the first time on January 21, will focus on early intervention as well as addressing issues specific to pregnant women, young mothers and mothers of young children in the criminal justice system.

A full action plan over improvements needed is due to be published in March.