Our prison system is not working, as these suicides demonstrate all too clearly

The soaring number of suicides in Britain's jails, especially in young offenders' institutions, is a lethal by-product of our Government's refusal to adopt a sensible, or humane, prisons policy. The scale of the problem is plain. Britain's prison population is the highest in western Europe. We are cramming more and more people into our jails to little discernible benefit to society. The latest report from the Prison Reform Trust makes it painfully clear that our system is badly failing to rehabilitate young offenders.

The soaring number of suicides in Britain's jails, especially in young offenders' institutions, is a lethal by-product of our Government's refusal to adopt a sensible, or humane, prisons policy. The scale of the problem is plain. Britain's prison population is the highest in western Europe. We are cramming more and more people into our jails to little discernible benefit to society. The latest report from the Prison Reform Trust makes it painfully clear that our system is badly failing to rehabilitate young offenders.

Anne Owers, the chief inspector of prisons, has pointed out in the past that overcrowding is linked to the increasing number of suicides. Such a link is hardly surprising. The more prisoners there are, the fewer resources are available. Due to a shortage of wardens, some prisoners find themselves confined to their cells for long periods, often up to 23 hours a day. Depriving inmates of exercise, or the ability to take a shower, is bound to lead to resentment and depression. The crumbling infrastructure of our jails is also a cause for concern. Unscreened lavatories and cramped cells make life intolerable. Inflicting such indignities on prisoners does nothing to help rehabilitate them.

But this is not the whole story. Thousands enter prison with severe drug and mental health problems. In the absence of treatment programmes or counselling, the numbers of inmates who simply despair will continue to rise. The praiseworthy efforts that have been made in some jails to help prisoners off drugs are being swamped by the huge weight of numbers coming in.

This policy is proving especially lethal in young offenders' units and women's prisons. In the late 1990s the number of young offenders in jail jumped by a third. Thrusting so many young people into young offenders' institutions - which are often cauldrons of bullying, drug abuse and neglect - has led to a string of harrowing suicides. The death of Philip Rustell, who hanged himself in his cell earlier this year, is the latest in a long line of tragedies. There are also more women being sent to jail than ever before. Although they make up only 6 per cent of the prison population, they account for 11 per cent of suicides. Young people and women suffer from the same problems of drug addiction and mental illness as other inmates but are often more vulnerable. Hence the high incidence of suicide.

The most obvious thing that can be done to improve matters is to make it easier for inmates to get help while in prison. This means establishing more education and training programmes. More effective drug treatment facilities must also be made available. Counselling services need to be on hand for the huge number of self-harmers. Thousands of inmates need mental health treatment, not a spell behind bars.

But this alone is not enough. The only way to bring down the number of suicides is to reduce the prison population. This will only happen when the Home Secretary accepts that, in many cases, prison simply does not work. Sending ever more people to jail wins David Blunkett plaudits from the Daily Mail and The Sun, but does nothing to make us safer from crime.

An adequately resourced, progressive prison service would have a chance of reducing reoffending. Our overcrowded, antiquated system has produced only a rising suicide rate and a regular supply of repeat offenders. A partial solution is to place a greater emphasis on non-custodial punishments for petty crimes. In addition, long sentences and the excessive use of custodial remand must be curtailed. The courts should use custodial sentences only in extreme cases.

Perhaps the greatest fallacy about prison is that it is a cheap option. The fact is that each of our 74,000 prisoners costs the taxpayer some £27,500 a year to keep in jail. This is money very poorly spent. And the human cost, represented by the appalling suicide rates, is all too clear.