Non-Custodial Deaths: Missing, Ignored or Unimportant?

Whereas deaths in ‘secure’ or custodial settings have received considerable academic and policy attention, deaths that occur amongst those serving a community sentence are much less well understood. Indeed, it is only very recently that the government has started to publish data on deaths of offenders in the community. Whilst the Prisons and Probation Ombudsman is empowered to investigate such deaths, this has never happened. Yet the mortality rate amongst people who are serving a sentence in the community is consistently higher than in the general population, and perhaps even higher than in custody. In recent years, we have undertaken two studies (on behalf of the Howard League and the Equality and Human Rights Commission) which have sought to investigate this important social issue. In an article published in Criminology and Criminal Justice we have provided an overview of the findings and reflected upon the implications of our work.

Findings: We have found that women are more at risk of dying whilst serving a sentence in the community when compared to the general population, and that drug-related deaths and suicide feature heavily. In the research, for the Equality and Human Rights Commission, we focused on people who died of non-natural causes within 28 days of leaving prison and died by suspected suicide within 48 hours of being released from police custody.

 Read more: Centre for Crime & Justice Studies, https://is.gd/3MPxQC