Rates of self-harm soar among young offenders
originally published: 1st March 2009
The number of children and young people self-harming in prisons has more than doubled in the past decade, figures released by the Ministry of Justice show.
The records, which include suicide attempts, paint an alarming picture of the mental toll of imprisonment on 15- to 20-year-olds.
Last year, there were a total of 2,040 incidents of self-inflicted injury reported at young offender institutions. This is compared with 1,835 incidents in 2007 and 879 during a 12-month period in 1997-98.
The figures, which relate to 20 prisons holding young offenders between the ages of 15 and 20, also show that staff at the centres were assaulted 914 times last year, up from 821 in 2007. In total, 892 young people were categorised as self-harmers last year, more than one in 10.
The latest figures have raised concerns about the safety of young people – around 7,800 – held in institutions across the country.
