'Let prisoners have free phones to cut down shocking inmate suicide rate' declares HMP Prisons Ombudsman

Every three and half days in England in Wales a prisoners kills themselves and after investigating the causes HMP Prisons Ombudsman Adrian Usher has called for inmates to be given contract phones.

Mr Usher believes the inmate suicide rate is more than sym[yptom of a broken prison system but sad indictment of the society we live in. Last year the sister of murder suspect Jai Singh phoned the prison 85 times trying to contact him in the days before he killed himself.

HMPs Stafford, Featherstone, Brinsford, Hewell, Dovecote, Swinfern Hall, Stoke Heath, Drake Hall and HMP Birmingham would all be including in the Ombudsman's radical plan.

Ombudsman Usher said: "Understanding the emotions that lead to suicide and self-harm is a complex task. Psychiatry, psychology, sociology, philosophy and theology are amongst the schools of thought that have something to contribute on understanding why an individual makes, in an instant, an eternally irrevocable decision.

"However, there are factors that we know can make a positive difference and many of these are woven into prison rules and policies. The day-to-day delivery of such measures by compassionate staff within the prison service undoubtedly saves many hundreds of lives a year. However, there is more that can be done, and we know that a very significant positive consideration is regular contact with those loved ones on the outside."

He added: "Prisoners feeling part of and connected to a world beyond the prison walls may feel like a counter-intuitive aspiration for our criminal justice system. After all, a court has determined that in order to protect the public, an individual should lose their liberty. But loss of liberty is not the same as isolation."

"The severing of ties with family, friends and home communities are not only significant negative factors in suicide but also in reducing reoffending. If you believe that no one in the world beyond the prison gates cares for you, then when you walk out of them there is considerably less shame in offending against that world."

Mr Usher was appointed Prisons and Probation Ombudsman in March 2023 and after visiting HMPs and speaking to inmates across the country, he pinpointed the phone system is out of date and incredible expensive.

He said: "Prisoners currently pay for their phne calls per minute in a way that almost no one in society now does. In effect, this means they pay far more for calls than you or I do, and it occurs to me that there is no reason why this should be the case. The vast majority of the cost for any prison telecom provider is in the establishment and maintenance of infrastructure.

"The actual cost of a call is negligible. My argument is that telecom providers could provide unlimited minutes to the prison service in the same way they do to most of the public, without impacting profit. Prisoners could be placed on monthly contracts which they pay for themselves. Then the decision regarding the number of minutes each prisoner is allowed, would rest, where it should, with the prison Governor.

"When I ask Governors why prisoners pay for their calls per-minute when nobody else does, I am almost always greeted with furrowed brows and silence. The more reflective respond with “because they always have”. When I suggest contracts instead, I have yet to find anyone in HM Prison and Probation Services or in private prisons, at any rank, to offer a dissenting voice."

"There is an opportunity here. Quite apart from the moral argument that, for those in crisis, a phone-call can literally be a life-saver."