A charity has raised major concerns as the number of prisoners harming themselves in jail reached record levels in the UK. Its comments comes after the death of a woman at a South Derbyshire prison.
The Ministry of Justice has published the latest Safety in Custody Statistics, which show there were record levels of self-harm cases in prisons in England and Wales. There was however a slight decline in 'self-inflicted deaths' in prisons.

There were 316 deaths in prison custody in the 12 months to June 2017, down from 322 in the previous year. Two of these were murders, which was down from five. There were 97 'self-inflicted deaths' - down by 10 compared to the privious year. Six of these were female prisoners, the report showed.

Caroline Anne Hunt hanged herself in Foston Prison

Self-harm reached a record high of 40,414 incidents in the 12 months to March 2017, up 5,749 (17 per cent) from the previous year. After four consecutive quarter of a year rises, however, the last quarter did see a drop, by 409 incidents (four per cent) when compared to the previous one. The number of incidents in the year up to March which required hospital attendance also rose by 13 per cent to 2,771.

The figures come after the death of prisoner Caroline Ann Hunt who died in hospital three days after hanging herself at HMP Foston Hall on September 26, 2015.

The 53-year-old's inquest saw a jury rule that staff there had underestimated the risk she posed to herself. It found Ms Hunt should have been given formal psychiatric assessment and should not have been moved to a single cell. Coroner Dr Robert Hunter heard appropriate precautions to prevent her committing suicide were not taken.
The prison findings provoked fury from the charity INQUEST, which provides advice on deaths in custody. At the time it slammed the case and questioned the 'state of governance' at HMP Foston Hall, where four of the five self-inflicted deaths across the women's prison estate in England and Wales took place in 2015.

Following the release of latest findings on record levels of self-harm but a slight decline in prison suicides, Deborah Coles, director of INQUEST said that the rate of self-inflicted deaths in prisons had more than doubling since 2013.

She said: "We urge government not to become complacent. Levels of self-harm in prisons continue to rise and it is clear from these figures that prisons still struggle to ensure the safety and protection of those in their care.”

A Ministry of Justice spokesman said at the time of the inquest into the death of Caroline Ann Hunt said that it recognised there were failings in her care, and that HMP Foston Hall has already put in place a number of measures.