Independent Review into Self-Inflicted Deaths in NOMS Custody of 18-24 year olds - Call for submissions

Overview

On 6 February 2014 the Justice Secretary announced an independent review into self-inflicted deaths in National Offender Management Service custody of 18-24 year olds and invited Lord Toby Harris, Chair of the Independent Advisory Panel on Deaths in Custody to conduct it.

Independent Review into Self-Inflicted Deaths in NOMS Custody of 18-24 year olds - Call for submissions (PDF)

The purpose of the review is to make recommendations to reduce the risk of future self-inflicted deaths in custody. The review will focus on issues including:

• vulnerability,
• information sharing,
• safety,
• staff prisoner relationships,
• family contact, and
• staff education and training

and will seek these through this call for submissions alongside existing and commissioned research and meetings with stakeholders and people affected and interested more broadly.

This review is examining cases since the roll out of  Assessment, Care in Custody and Teamwork (ACCT) – the care planning system for prisoners identified as at risk of suicide or self-harm. ACCT roll out was completed on 1 April 2007.

From 1 April 2007 until 31 December 2013 there were 84 recorded self-inflicted deaths among 18-24 year olds in custody; this represents 19% of all recorded self-inflicted deaths in this period.

We would strongly welcome your contribution to the review and invite you to make a submission to support the review process.

Your submission can be based on your personal or professional experience, your organisation’s experience, or knowledge from research or other means and need not conform to any specific format.

Submissions should be received by midnight on 18 July 2014.

Please submit contributions electronically where possible, to the following email address:  HarrisReview@justice.gsi.gov.uk. Any hard copy contributions should be sent to Harris Review, 8.24, 102 Petty France London, SW1H 9AJ.

We have set out a number of questions, which are potentially relevant to the Review and which we may want to examine during the course of our work.

While we will be very interested in receiving submissions that cover these questions, at the same time, you are not limited by them. If there is something else that you would like to say, you should feel free to do so.

Similarly, you should not feel obliged to respond to every question - please select questions that are most relevant to your experience and skills. 

Please let us have any examples, case studies, research or other types of evidence to support your views.

Please note that anything you submit to the Review will be made publicly available on the Review website unless you tell us that you don’t want some or all of your response and any documents in support that you submit to be published.

Be reassured that any information that you send to us will be managed under the Data Protection Act.   

Please also note that the Review is not subject to disclosure under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 and therefore any requests for information made under this Act will not be considered.