Prison welfare hotlines are failing to answer calls from concerned relatives reporting fears about suicidal inmates because the system needs overhaul, report claims
- Just one in ten safeguarding departments answer calls from worried families
- Policy says families should be able to share their concerns ‘without delay’
- Research was carried out by charities Prison Reform Trust, Inquest and the Prison Advice and Care Trust (PACT)
Calls to prison hotlines by relatives reporting urgent fears about suicidal inmates and those at risk of self-harm are going unanswered in a failing system, a damning report found.
Just one in ten prison safeguarding departments answers phone calls from families worried about the welfare of inmates, research suggested.
Some calls made to the ‘safer custody’ phone lines went straight to an answer-phone, messages were not answered or the numbers did not even work.
Calls to prison hotlines by relatives reporting urgent fears about suicidal inmates are going unanswered, new research has found. (File photo)
Research carried out by charities Prison Reform Trust, Inquest and the Prison Advice and Care Trust (PACT) indicated most jails in England and Wales were failing in their duty to ensure the emergency phone lines were in place.
Government policy says families should be able to share concerns ‘without delay’ by using a dedicated phone line.
The charities’ report said: ‘At a time of unprecedented levels of self-harm in prisons, charities are calling on prisons to protect the lives of people in prison and address these critical failures.
‘In 12 months to March 2019, there were 58,000 self-harm incidents in prisons – compared to 26,000 a decade earlier.’
The report said almost two in five prisons in England and Wales appeared to have no functioning dedicated safer custody telephone lines.
A further 18 per cent advertised a dedicated line, but when called the number was not operational, was not answered, or went through to a general switchboard.
The research was carried out by charities Prison Reform Trust, Inquest and the Prison Advice and Care Trust (PACT). (File photo)
Of the 75 dedicated safer custody telephone lines that went through to the right departments, only 13 were answered by staff, with the remaining 62 going straight to an answer-machine.
Deborah Coles, director of Inquest, said: ‘The ability of a family to contact prisons to raise concerns about their relative can be the difference between life and death. We hope that the recommendations of this new report are implemented and do not gather dust.’
The Ministry of Justice said: ‘The findings of this report are unacceptable and we have already taken immediate action to address the concerns.’