Surge in prison suicides
Rise in deaths comes after ‘tough on crime’ policies and a blowout in prisoner numbers
Prison suicides and attempted suicides have surged over the months in which Corrections struggled to contain a ballooning jail population.
It has raised concerns that the blowout in prisoner numbers after years of “tough on crime” policies is extracting a human cost.
The new data comes as Minister of Justice Andrew Little prepares to ask the Cabinet to back the removal of the Three Strikes law, leading to National reviving its “tough on crime” call and promising to bring back the law if it’s scrapped.
Little’s move follows research from the Prime Minister’s chief science adviser, Sir Peter Gluckman, showing the tough policies had an effect opposite to what was intended by creating increasingly damaged, hardened criminals.
Details of the suicides and attempted suicides, revealed through the Official Information Act, show one suicide occurred in the 18 months from March 2016.
There were then six suicides in the next six months. Over that same period, there were 20 suicide attempts in the first 18 months and then 19 in the next six months.
Of those, eight were female prisoners even though women form just 7.4 per cent of the prison population.
The inmate population grew from 9273 prisoners in March 2016 to 10,712 at the beginning of March this year. The rapid rise forced Corrections to expand capacity by introducing double-bunking and reopening old prison units.
Minister of Corrections Kelvin Davis said: “Any unnatural death is one too many.”
But he said it would be “irresponsible” to link the prison population to suicide numbers because inmates had “higher rates of poor mental health and addiction issues, and are more likely to have experienced abuse and neglect than the general population”.
He said Corrections had launched a new mental health strategy and was introducing a new approach to managing prisoners contemplating self-harm.
Chief Ombudsman Peter Boshier said his office received incident reports on each death in custody and was working with Corrections and the Ministry of Health to address mental health issues in prison.
“We are keeping a close eye on incidents of self-harm and suicide in the prison system.”
A Corrections spokeswoman said the data was too small to form a trend and suicide statistics varied wildly, with one death in the previous financial year and 11 the year before.
The prison population had grown 23 per cent in five years.
“There will always be a degree of correlation between the number of such incidents and the size of the total prison population.”
She said 62 per cent of prisoners had some
Do we think the best place to put people with high levels of mental health issues . . . is into a large, anti-therapeutic environment? Professor Tracey McIntosh
form of mental health or substance abuse issue in the past 12 months and 91 per cent had a lifetime diagnosis. There were new programmes underway to address these problems.
Barrister Moira Macnab, who has acted for families of suicide victims at inquests, said the data showed “a strong correlation between the number of suicides and changes in management of overcrowding”.
She said a “very thorough inquiry” was needed into management decisions on crowding and psychological support for prisoners.
University of Auckland professor Tracey McIntosh said suicide amid increased crowding raised questions of judges who sent people to jail.
“As a society, do we think the best place to put people with high levels of mental health issues and unwellness is into a large, antitherapeutic environment?” Victoria University criminologist Sociologist Ti Lamusse, who read 110 coronial reports for his master’s thesis on death in prison, said jail was a high-stress environment.
“We know putting people into harsh conditions in prison makes them more likely to hurt others when they get out of prison.
“For the sake of society, it doesn’t make sense to treat people in prisons without dignity.” The National Party’s “tough on crime” campaign has become “oops, sorry — not that tough on crime”.
The party has deleted comments on a Facebook page after a video attacking the Government over proposed crime and justice reform led to supporters suggesting execution and maiming as punishments.
The comments included a Tauranga man suggesting “cut their hands off for stealing, heads (off) for murder” and a Waikato woman who said “bullets are cheaper for violent offenders”.
The comments have been deleted by National since being flagged by the Herald.
A spokeswoman said: “The National Party’s Facebook page states people are welcome to express their personal views, positive or negative.
“However, comments may be removed or users blocked for comments which may be considered offensive to other visitors.”
Last election, National issued a social media guide telling candidates to “delete comments if they are grossly offensive, spam, or threaten others”.
Justice Minister Andrew Little would not be interviewed yesterday about plans for law changes but earlier this year told the mother of a murdered teenager — through the Herald — prison was still the place for violent offenders.