The cost of prison suicide

• ISBN: 978-1-911114-00-0

• Published: 2016

• Pages: 8

• Publisher: The Howard League for Penal Reform

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The cost of prison suicide

The emotional cost of suicide in prison is unquantifiable, but research published by the Howard League for Penal Reform indicates that the financial cost to the taxpayer could be as much as £300million a year.

This research briefing is the first publication of its kind to examine the financial impact that a prisoner’s death by suicide can have on public services in England and Wales. It sets out how the response to a death in custody puts pressure on numerous services – including the prisons themselves, police and local authorities – and shows how that money could be better spent on measures to prevent people taking their own lives in the first place.