Prisons and Probation Ombudsman see self-neglect and adult safeguarding issues in prison deaths
Published:
September 14, 2023
In the 2022/23 Annual Report drafted by Kimberley Bingham who was Acting Ombudsman at the time, the PPO share there has been a concerning rise in prison and self-inflicted deaths, with cases that have raised safeguarding issues.
Kimberley Bingham said: “Prisons have a duty to keep prisoners safe and protect them from abuse and neglect”
The PPO are concerned about the increase in prison deaths as adult safeguarding issues continue to be seen in our self-inflicted death investigations.
“Prison and healthcare staff have a responsibility to report safeguarding concerns and more must be done to embed a robust, multi-disciplinary person-centred approach”, said Kimberley.
In the year covered by this report, we received 4,472 complaints and we started 404 fatal incident investigations, a 23% increase from the previous year.
Key findings:
- The PPO are concerned there were 34 more prison deaths than last year. We also started investigations into 5 more self-inflicted deaths than last year.
- We investigated a number of fatal incidents during the year that involved prisoner’s self-neglect. We recommended that HMPPS should develop a self-neglect strategy and guidance to be used in the prison environment.
- Our investigations found that some prisons have been unable to introduce key work fully, leading to a lack of meaningful contact between staff and prisoners.
- We regularly investigate complaints about the impact of prison security measures on day-to-day life for prisoners. A balance needs to be struck between implementing security policies that reduce risk and maintain safety, and ensuring that the impact on individuals is fair and proportionate.