Self-inflicted deaths in prison custody
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Self inflicted deaths and harm in prison custody.
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1. Main facts and figures
- in the 5 years presented, White prisoners were more likely to take their own life than prisoners in other ethnic groups
- the number of self-inflicted deaths for White prisoners rose from 51 in 2011 to 77 in 2015
- the much smaller number of self-inflicted deaths for other ethnic groups means trends for these groups are less reliable
Things you need to know
All deaths in prison custody are subject to a police investigation and a coroner’s inquest. The outcome of the investigation and inquest will sometimes lead to deaths being reclassified, so all figures for the last 2 years are provisional.
Prisoners had self-reported their ethnicity.
Estimates of ethnicity based on a larger number of respondents are generally more reliable. Therefore, the smaller numbers of respondents from ethnic minority backgrounds mean that estimates for these groups are less reliable than estimates for White people.
What the data measures
The data measures the number and rates of self-inflicted death per 1,000 prisoners in England and Wales per calendar year from 2011 to 2015, with a breakdown by ethnic group and gender.
Self-inflicted deaths in prison are tracked by Her Majesty’s Prison and Probation Service (formerly the National Offender Management Service). Rates are published in the NOMS Offender Equalities statistics bulletin, while the number of incidents is published in the Ministry of Justice’s Safety in Custody statistics bulletin.
Self-inflicted deaths include both suicides, and cases where prisoners unintentionally caused their death (which corresponds with the definition for suicide used by the Office for National Statistics for the general population).
The ethnic categories used in this data
Prisoners’ ethnicity was recorded in the following broad categories:
- Asian / Asian British
- Black / African / Caribbean / Black British
- Mixed / Multiple ethnic groups
- White
- Chinese or Other
2. Self-inflicted deaths per 1,000 prisoners by ethnicity
| Asian | Black | Mixed | White | Other/Chinese | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Year | Asian Rate | Asian Number | Black Rate | Black Number | Mixed Rate | Mixed Number | White Rate | White Number | Other/Chinese Rate | Other/Chinese Number |
| 2011 | 0.5 | 3 | 0.2 | 2 | 0.3 | 1 | 0.8 | 51 | 1.0 | 1 |
| 2012 | 0.5 | 3 | 0.4 | 4 | 1.6 | 5 | 0.8 | 49 | 0.0 | 0 |
| 2013 | 0.9 | 6 | 0.7 | 8 | 0.6 | 2 | 1.0 | 60 | 0.0 | 0 |
| 2014 | 0.5 | 3 | 0.4 | 4 | 0.6 | 2 | 1.3 | 80 | 0.0 | 0 |
| 2015 | 0.7 | 5 | 0.3 | 3 | 0.9 | 3 | 1.2 | 77 | 1.0 | 1 |
Download table data for ‘Self-inflicted deaths per 1,000 prisoners by ethnicity’ (CSV) Source data for ‘Self-inflicted deaths per 1,000 prisoners by ethnicity’ (CSV)
Summary of Self-inflicted deaths in prison custody Self-inflicted deaths per 1,000 prisoners by ethnicity Summary
-
in 2015 there were 77 self-inflicted deaths among White prisoners, a rate of 1.2 per 1,000 prisoners
-
this was a higher rate than all other ethnic groups, which had 12 self-inflicted deaths in total, in the same period
3. Methodology
Quarterly data was used to calculate the prisoner population, as monthly data wasn’t available by ethnicity. Ethnicity is based on self-reporting by prisoners and has not been independently validated.
Admin data sources reported as recorded. Information is provided by prisons and signed off locally.
Incidents are marked as ‘not recorded/unknown’ when prisoner details were either not available or not recorded in full at the time of the incident
Data wardens review the data, but as with all large administrative surveys errors and omissions can happen.
Suppression rules and disclosure control
Values of 2 or fewer are suppressed in relation to individuals (not incidents, where no disclosure applies).
Rounding
Rates per 1,000 to 1 decimal point
Further technical information
4. Data sources
Source
Type of data
Administrative data
Publisher
Ministry of Justice
Publication frequency
Yearly
Purpose of data source
Administrative data used for internal management information
5. Download the data
This file contains the following: ethnicity, year, value, and numerator