Backing mental health enquiry

Backing for enquiry into mental health problems and suicide in prisons

The campaigning group Black Mental Health UK has condemned the rapid rise in the number of suicides in prison over the past 12 months, and is seeking the backing of community and faith groups in its call for urgent government action.

The latest official statistics indicate that black prisoners are currently passing through the prison system at a rate five times higher than that of white prisoners, says BMH, which is calling for a government enquiry. "Clearly there are concerns about this and we need to have an ethnic breakdown of exactly who has died in prison in the last 12 months in order to establish current trends," Lord Herman Ouseley, former head of the Commission For Racial Equality (now part of the Commission on Equality and Human Rights) said.

He continued: "One suicide is one to many and we have seen figures on the over representation of ethnic minorities within prison settings but have not been given any answers as to why this is not being addressed."

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