Self-harm in prison: moving towards contextual understanding (opens in new tab)

BackgroundRates of self-harm in prisons in England and Wales are historically high. Despite extensive evidence linking self-harm in custody to adversity exposure, psychiatric morbidity, neurodevelopmental conditions, acquired brain injury (ABI), substance misuse, and treatment in prison (including use of solitary confinement and experiences of victimisation), frontline officers frequently characterise self-harm as “manipulative”. Framing self-harm as uncontextualized manipulation is associate...