HMP Liverpool: 'Dramatic' reduction in suicides at jail

Mersey Care took over the mental health services at HMP Liverpool in 2018

A "zero suicide" approach at HMP Liverpool has led to a "dramatic" reduction of inmates taking their own lives, a health boss has said.

Professor Joe Rafferty, of Mersey Care NHS Foundation Trust, said there had been two suicides in a two-year period.

Mersey Care took over mental health services at the jail in 2018 after a damning review of the former trust.

It found Liverpool Community Health NHS Trust to be "ill-equipped" to deal with prison healthcare.

Between April 2013 and December 2014 there were six suicides, the review found, while the latest visit to the Walton jail by HM Inspectorate of Prisons in 2019 noted another six self-inflicted deaths since its previous inspection in 2017.

'Stark improvements'

Speaking at Spectrum's Festival of Leadership & Learning, Prof Rafferty said the trend had reversed and the latest figures showed just two deaths by suicide in a two-year period.

He said: "Now that's two deaths too many I have to say.

"But I suppose if we were to roll forward and what history had looked like then we would have expected somewhere between seven and eight deaths in that two-year period.

"And we have reduced that to two, so a pretty dramatic reduction I would say."

Two years ago, inspectors found filthy toilets and some areas so hazardous they could not be cleaned

He said he was confident that looking forward there would be long periods of zero suicides at the prison and suicide "should be preventable, not inevitable".

Prof Rafferty said there had also been a drop in more general self-harming incidents.

In 2017 HMP Liverpool was the subject of one of the most damning reports in years by HM Inspectorate of Prisons, which found there was an "abject failure" to provide suitable conditions.

It was found to be ridden with litter, dirt, rats and cockroaches, alongside problems with violence and drugs.

Two years later it was praised for making stark improvements after a new governor was drafted in, the number of inmates was cut by around 500, and a refurbishment programme started.

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