Prynhawn da , Good Afternoon and thank you to Chaplain Ahmed Alsisi for inviting me to speak at today’s Wales Bereavement and Mental Well Being Conference.
Champlain Alsisi told me that although this conference would predominantly focus on bereavement and support for the bereaved, it would also be delving into other important topics such as mental health, suicide awareness and support for prison leavers – and he asked me to focus my speech on prison mental health and suicide.
As he explained to me , he became involved in these issues when he noticed an increase in suicide funerals and a marked health effect on prison leavers, too many of whom commit suicide. He was also concerned that too many young people go into prison with mental health issues in the first place.
During the 12 months to September 2018 there were 325 deaths in prison custody across England and Wales - up 8% from the previous year.
87 of these were self-inflicted deaths.
The Howard League for Penal Reform Report “Preventing Prison Suicide” found that relationships between staff and prisoners are key. Prisoners need to feel supported, cared for and able to confide in and trust staff.
The report recommended that change needs to happen across the system to recognise the influence of the prison environment on people’s vulnerability.
It found that prisons should be Enabling Environments, striving to create a psychologically informed environment with an emphasis on the quality of relationships.
This summer’s the Prison Reform Trust briefing states that nearly a third of people assessed in prison in 2016–17 reported that they had a learning disability or difficulty – and that 7% of people in contact with the criminal justice system have a learning disability, compared with only 2% of the general population.
This also found:
- that four-fifths of prisoners with learning disabilities or difficulties report having problems reading prison information.
- that they also had difficulties expressing themselves and understanding certain words.
- that prisoners with learning disabilities or difficulties are more likely than other prisoners to have broken a prison rule
- that they are five times as likely to have been subject to control and restraint,
- and that they are around three times as likely to report having spent time in segregation.
The Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists states that “it is widely accepted that around 60% of young people in the justice system have speech, language and communication needs (SLCN)” – and that “although there has been less attention paid to adult offenders, the research that has been conducted in this population indicates that levels of SLCN may be much higher in the adult prison population than in the general population”.
The importance of wellbeing and support in different environments was also emphasised by last week’s BBC report that the number of students seeking mental health support while studying at university has increased by more than 50% in five years – and highlighted suicide as an issue there.
Joining university can be a hugely exciting time, but for many, the transition can be a time of significant stress.
The UK Government recently announced plans to deliver a dramatic improvement in the way universities support the mental health of their students. With the development of the Mental Health Charter, the UK Government Minister for Universities set a clear expectation upon universities in England to make mental health a priority for its students by putting in place a set of standards which universities are expected to meet.
A Project Leader with Welsh mental health support charity Hafal, Rebecca Frohwein, told my office about her husband, who was a vulnerable young person from local authority care who got involved in the criminal justice system. He hung himself a year and half ago after years of struggling with his mental health - as she says “leaving myself and 3 children to grieve his loss and cope with the trauma of suicide”.
She sked to be identified: and states:
- that “there is a lack of specialist counselling services in Wales. Suicide bereavement is very similar to bereavement through homicide, there is a double trauma and a counsellor qualified in this area is required”.
- that “the inquest system takes too long, and when investigated this is often due to organisations not providing paperwork requested by the coroner in a timely manner.
- This is preventable and, as a result causes unmeasured trauma for families when the inquest is delayed.
- that the grieving process cannot begin until this is completed”.
- that “losing a parent to suicide makes it more likely that the child will also choose suicide, as well as develop many mental health issues.
- that there is still a huge amount of stigma attached to suicide, leaving young people with many questions and shame surrounding the death of a loved one or friend this way”.
- and that “the process after a suicide is difficult to navigate where she spent a lot of time organising the practicalities when she should have been grieving with my children”.
As she also stated that, “young people in care are at a higher risk of being involved in the criminal justice system due to the events in their lives – adding that these young people need extra support both whilst in care and when leaving the system through a Multi-agency approach”.
On the 21st August I attended the stakeholder engagement event held in Wrexham by HM Prison and Probation Service in Wales to discuss future probation services in Wales – and the proposals contained in the recently published “Strengthening probation, building confidence” consultation paper.
We heard that “in Wales, the proposals consulted on are that, from 2020 all offender management services will sit within the National Probation Service - and that HM Prison and Probation Service in Wales will explore options for the commissioning of rehabilitative services, such as interventions and community payback”.
They told us that they will build upon the unique arrangements they already have in Wales through their established prisons and probation directorate.
As they stated, this will better reflect the devolved responsibilities of the Welsh Government and build on existing local partnerships that probation services have successfully developed.
As we heard, these proposals will allow increasing integration across prisons and probation in Wales - “preventing victims by changing lives” - with real input from the Third Sector, utilising people capital.
Following this, I took the National Probation Service in Wales to meet North Wales-based Eagle House Youth Development Community Interest Company to discuss Eagle House’s provision of training and support for young people involved with or at risk of committing crime or anti-social acts of behaviour.
Eagle House has already built a strong working relationship with Job Centres in North Wales.
In my own Region, young people living in supported accommodation have created a ‘Youth Shed’ in Denbigh, to provide a safe place for young people to explore who they are, develop pro-social relationships with suitable role models, and develop and learn skills.
When I visited this Grwp Cynefin project, the young people told me that this provided a safe space for them to develop and prepare themselves for independent living.
At last year’s Digartref Ynys Môn and Bangor University event in the National Assembly, we heard homeless young people themselves debating youth homelessness in Wales. As they said young people living in supported accommodation could have a host of issues to deal with and may struggle with this alongside studying and assignments.
As the Executive Director of HM Prison and Probation Service for Wales told the Welsh Affairs Select Committee in September “we do not have the provision in Wales to deal with lots of different things”… for example “we do not have anywhere to put high-security offenders or anywhere to house terrorists”.
“We have a system in England and Wales that is not designed solely on the basis of geographical location. It is also designed on the basis of the needs of the prisoner, and they can be geographically dispersed. You have to weigh—what the regime, the provision and the intervention are that you want to give the individual, versus closeness to home”.
She added “You cannot compare all prisons to all prisons; you have to do prisons in comparator groups... both Swansea and Cardiff are performing better than their comparator groups against safety and order. On self-harm and violence, both Swansea and Cardiff are performing better. Usk and Prescoed have some of the best levels of performance in their systems”.
Wrexham Glyndŵr University have told me that they have a range of innovative collaborative projects with HMP Berwyn. In the past few months, one of the communities within the prison was named after the university, in keeping with HMP Berwyn’s ethos to inspire residents to develop themselves educationally and socially whilst in the prison.
The rehabilitative model espoused by HMP Berwyn is the subject of a PhD currently being undertaken by a Wrexham Glyndŵr student, who has worked closely with HMP officers as well as offenders there. In addition, a range of student placement projects are under development to support initiatives that help prepare the prisoners for life back in the community and build their mental resilience.
Next month, on the 4th December, I am sponsoring an event in the Assembly with Construction Youth Trust Cymru and construction company BAM Nuttall which will celebrate the success of the ‘Clean Slate Cymru’ project and launch the Clean Slate Cymru Toolkit.
The project helps ex-offenders train and find employment in the construction sector via work placements, skills training, support and mentoring, and helps form new links between offender management services and construction firms.
It also supported the development of a toolkit and best practice guide to help employers offer continued support when the project ends.
The Toolkit is a practical guide on how the construction industry can engage with ex-offenders in prisons and communities across Wales and achieve social value.
In April I hosted a Bevan Foundation and Big Issue Cymru “Prevention and Inclusion” event in the National Assembly.
The theme of the event was prevention and inclusion – words which are commonly used, but often without being clear about what they mean in practice.
As I said there, “prevention is vital if people and organisations in Wales are going to address the major challenges we face.
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- sticking plasters are just not enough – we need to find the underlying causes and do something to address them
- prevention means taking practical action to stop problems arising in the first place.
- To use an analogy – if people keep falling into a river, would it not be better to build a fence upstream to stop them falling in rather than endlessly rescuing them before they drown?
- As I also said “We need to fully embrace Co-production, moving beyond rhetoric and consultation to doing things differently in practice, with service professionals, service users and their communities working side by side to provide solutions.
- This is about moving from needs – based approaches to strength based development - helping people in communities identify the strengths they already have, and utilising those strengths with them”.
At the event we heard from Lord John Bird, the founder of the Big Issue.
John had experience of deep poverty, homelessness and being in custody, before building on his prison education to found The Big Issue in the early 1990s
His 'prevention, emergency, coping and cure' model argues the importance of prevention rather than just putting resources into emergency and coping.
As he said “38% of pupils aren’t doing well at school and yet these people comprise 80% of the prison population. We must tackle the causes.”
As he also said “80% of social intervention money is spent on emergency and coping, but almost nothing on cure – adding that when considering spending, we must therefore always ask whether the ‘Social Pound’ is prevention money?”