Women’s prisons report finds 97 deaths in decade as self

Over the past decade 97 women have died in prisons in England and Wales, as incidents of self-harm among female prisoners reach the highest level on record, a new report has found.

Inquest, the charity that produced the report, collated Ministry of Justice (MoJ) figures since 2015 to arrive at a total number of deaths. It said the numbers were evidence for its case that all women’s prisons should be closed.

The deaths analysed by the report include those of Saria Hart, 26, who passed officers two suicide notes before taking her own life; Louisa Boultbee, 49, who suffered from epilepsy and was found unresponsive in her cell following an apparent seizure after two mandatory checks were missed; and Aisha Cleary, a newborn baby whose 18-year-old mother gave birth alone in her cell despite