One in four women prisoners self-harm every year

As many as one in four women prisoners in England and Wales self-harm every year, with women in prison four times more likely to self-harm than men. The findings come from the largest ever study of self-harm in prisons led by Dr Seena Fazel and Professor Keith Hawton from the University of Oxford. The researchers examined the prevalence of self-harm in all prisoners in England and Wales between 2004 and 2009 and the results are published in the medical journal The Lancet . There were almost 140,000 incidents of self-harm in this period, involving over 26,500 inmates. Incidents of self-harm were 10 times higher in female than in male prisoners, and around 30 times that of the general UK population (0. The study found that 20-24% of female prisoners and 5-6% of male inmates self-harm every year. Despite reductions in suicide rates in prisons over this six-year study period, incidents of self-harm did not decrease.