'Alarming' rise in inmates self-harming at Swinfen Hall prison

Swinfen Hall Prison is a category C jail that holds 600 male prisoners aged between 18-25

The number of prisoners self-harming at a Staffordshire jail has risen by almost 40%, a watchdog says.

Serious assaults on staff at Swinfen Hall prison near Lichfield have tripled, and there has been a "worrying increase" in inmates on constant watch.

Black, Asian, Minority Ethnic (BAME) prisoners were also 1.6 times more likely to face disciplinary charges, the Independent Monitoring Board found.

The Prison Service said it was "working to improve support for prisoners".

The board's report on the jail, which holds more than 600 young offenders and category C inmates, covers May 2017 to April this year.

It highlighted a lack of diversity in prison staffing, which gave BAME inmates a perception that "adversely" affected their treatment.

Figures show 38% of prisoners are BAME, compared to 5% of staff, which the prison acknowledged, the report said.

'Serious deficiency'

While BAME inmates facing multiple disciplinary charges could explain the higher figure, "the differences between the occurrence is stark and warrants thorough analysis", the board said.

The board said it was disappointed with the "alarming increase" in self-harming with 478 reports in 2017/18 compared with 346 the previous year, which had been a sharp reduction.

However, the board said it recognised improvements were starting to show.

But the a long-standing vacancy for a psychologist to work with prisoners who had been abused or suffered trauma was "a serious deficiency", the watchdog added.

Although the number of serious assaults on staff had tripled from three in 2016/17 to nine in the last year - following the national trend - the jail still had the lowest incidence of serious assault on prisoners and staff compared to similar prisons.

The Prison Service said it was working to recruit more black and Asian officers and had doubled the sentence for people who attack prison officers, adding: "Staff at Swinfen Hall have already benefitted from new body-worn cameras and increased CCTV.

"The prison has also been working to improve support for prisoners in their first days inside and staff have received new training to prevent suicide and self-harm."