Between Discipline and Medical Concern: Suicide Risk and The

Young Offender, 1945-1973Fiachra ByrneWellcome Trust Research FellowCentre for the History of Medicine in IrelandSchool of HistoryUniversity College Dublin

Prisoners, Medical Care and Entitlement to Health in England and Ireland, 1850-2000Professor Hilary Marland (Warwick)Dr Catherine Cox (UCD)http://histprisonhealth.com

Scum, 1979

MSS.16A/7/23/1, Modern Records Centre, University of Warwick

Overview of Paper

1. Historical vignette: suicide of borstal detainee 19452. Increase in suicide rate since the 1980s3. Suicide in prisons, late 19th & early 20th century4. Suicide and self-harm in Feltham Borstal, 1950s-1970s5. Concluding Remarks

1. Suicide of Borstal Detainee 1945

• Suicide in Winchester Prison while awaiting transfer to Borstal

• Inquest verdict: Death by hanging, self-inflicted while the balance of his mind was disturbed

• Petition by inmate that he was at risk and would kill himself ignored by prison staff and Home Office

• Prisoner was not referred to medical officer

Newspaper articles following suicide of borstal detainee

This is an unfortunate case. Baker’s complaints about his health in his petition were overlooked by the prison staff … Unfortunately these complaints were also overlooked when the petition reached C Divn., but here again I don’t think any real blame attaches to the persons concerned … Remarks of this kind are not uncommon in petitions and I do not think they would naturally be interpreted as a threat to commit suicide in the near future, calling for urgent action.

- Excerpt from internal Home Office Inquiry. Source: John Henry Thomas Baker aged 17: suicide in prison cell while awaiting transfer to a borstal institution; implication of boy's petition for early transfer overlooked, HO 144/22843, The National Archives

2. Suicide by juvenile detainees

• Suicide by juvenile detainees can delegitimise the prison system

• Increase in Standardised Mortality Rate for suicide among prisoners, especially those under 18, since 1978 (Fazel, et al., 2005)

• First thematic review of suicides prompted by suicide of 18 year old in Ashford Remand Centre in 1982

• Learning from the PPO – Self-inflicted Deaths of Prisoners 2013/14

• Harris Review, July 2015

Fazel, et al. (2005), ‘Suicide in male prisoners in Englandand Wales, 1978-2003’, Lancet 366 (9493): 1301-1302

MSS.16A/7/23/1, Modern Records Centre, University of Warwick

3. Prison Suicide, 1879-1911• John Lentaigne, Inspector General of Prisons in Ireland

- convinced cellular prison confinement inappropriate for children following suicide

• R.M. Gover – Medical Inspector of English and Welsh Prisoners – report into prison suicide 1879

• H.M. Smalley – Medical Inspector – report in 1911 – attributed juvenile suicides to ‘physiological instability of youth’

• Smalley believed youth offenders needed rehabilitation not punishment

I was particularly struck with the case of a boy who in 1871 committed suicide in one of the best but most strictly disciplined prisons in the kingdom. He had been sentenced to Glencree Reformatory, but could not be admitted as the school was overcrowded. He was not a bad boy, but he was deformed, and had no hope ever to earn an honest livelihood. He was a second time committed to gaol for larceny, was placed in one of the ordinary separate cells of the prison, and was given a quantity of oakum to pick. When the prison warder returned to the cell, the boy had strangled himself with the rope given to him to facilitate the task.

- John Lentaigne, former Inspector General of Prisons in Ireland, 1881

4. Feltham Borstal, 1950s

• Evidence from Governor’s Journals• Suicide and self-harm not treated as medical

problem• Similarly in Approved Schools of the time• When self-harming, after short periods of

detention and restraint, borstal inmates were returned to normal training regime

9.8.50: B.- attempted to abscond. Caught by staff within a few minutes10.8.50: B.- placed in L.C.R.J.. He had cut his legs several times with a piece of glass – was in a most sullen & truculent mood (I didn’t think depressed). He threatened to make a better job for the next time. He was taken to hospital and placed under restraint for his own safety at about 6.45 pm. I saw him at 9.15 pm11.8.50 B.- removed from L.C.R.J. at 12.10 pm. He was in a much better frame of mind and was sent back to carry on with his training …

- Feltham Governor’s Journal, 1944-51, LMA/4465/A/01/004, London Metropolitan Archives. Closed Collection

MSS.16A/7/23/1, Modern Records Centre, University of Warwick

Feltham Chaplain 1960s

• Psychiatric unit opened 1958 – greater medicalised

• Emergence of a psychotherapeutic regime• Chaplain played important therapeutic role in this

new regime; helps set up Inducation and Assessment Unit (IAU)

• Conflict between discipline and therapeutic staff• Chaplain interceding with inmates at points of

crisis

21.03.1969. Called to IAU to see I.- (a catholic) who had barricaded himself in his room having smashed a window and cut his throat very severely. Lad came out of room with me at about 12 noon. Lad to hospital and later I took him with H/O C.- to Ashford C.H. This boy is very disturbed

- Feltham Chaplain’s Journal, 1968-70, LMA/4465/E/01/003, London Metropolitan Archives. Closed Collection

Feltham Hospital, 1964 & 1973• Psychiatric patients expected to work and follow borstal

regime as much as possible• No marked difference in response to self-harm and other

serious disciplinary matter• Discipline staff in hospital could be quite cynical about

psychiatric patients; feeling they were gaming the system• Threats to commit suicide were sometimes treated as

purely disciplinary matters• Discipline staff often at odds with emergent

psychotherapeutic regime at Feltham

2.10.64: Placed on gov’s report 2 pm for refusing to obey an order given by HO N-. Drank only his liquid tea at tea time, refused the rest. The boy is obviously determined to make life as hard as possible for himself. At 8 pm asked for a razor black to slash his wrist, says he’ll be gone from here the first chance he get & threatened HO N-. 3.10.64: transferred to cells 6.10 am “White sheet” awarded

- Feltham Hospital Occurrence Book: Register of Occurrences, 1964, LMA/4465/D/01/001, London Metropolitan Archives. Closed Collection

5. Concluding remarks

Are there valid historical parallels to be drawn?Greater medicalisation of suicide & self-harm in the present?Is the purported return to a rehabilitative model signalled by Cameron and Gove significant and credible? If it marks a return to penal-welfarism, can we learn from earlier penal welfare institutions, like the Borstal?Is suicide and self-harm among juveniles in detention a problem of knowledge, technique and systems, or a problem of politics?

LMA has permitted access to records which contain sensitive personal data & which are currently closed under Data Protection legislation on the written understanding that no identifiable information on any individual is disclosed.Access to closed records held by the London Metropolitan Archives, such as those referenced in this presentation from Feltham Borstal, is at the discretion of the LMA, governed by strict confidentiality agreements, and not granted as a right to research applicants.

London Metropolitan ArchivesAccess to closed records