Report of the Inquiry into the circumstances of the Death of Bernard ...

23.25 Ms Crabbe and Mr Dugdale referred to the difficulties of maintaining a full
complement of Listeners throughout the prison. It can take from six to 12 weeks to vet
Samaritan volunteers to work inside the prison. This reduces the number of Samaritans
available to train Listeners which, in turn, tends to reduce the number of Listeners
available in the prison.
23.26 Listeners are not always available on all wings. Ms Crabbe commented that it
can be difficult to transfer a Listener especially at night.
23.27 There is a lack of privacy in shared cells to use the Samaritans telephones. I
have also commented on the difficulty of conducting sensitive conversations in
unsuitable locations (see above, paragraph 15.12).
Consideration
23.28 Having listened to Mr Vince’s evidence about progress at Manchester prison, one
of Mr Lodge’s sisters interjected – with vehemence – to say that there were still men
dying in Manchester prison. That is true. Since 1998, there have been apparently selfinflicted
deaths at Manchester each year to the end of July 2009 as follows:
Table 4
Year Number of apparently
self-inflicted deaths
1999 8
2000 1
2001 1
2002 1
2003 2
2004 6
2005 1
2006 4
2007 1
2008 2
2009 2
23.29 In England and Wales as a whole in 2008, 63 prisoners apparently took their own
lives. That is more than one prisoner every week. Every suicide is a grievous loss, for
the person who dies and for those close to them. There are many causes for distress in
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