New IAPDC workplan sets out priorities for preventing deaths in custody

Workstreams include continuing our work to improve investigations into, and data on, deaths under the Mental Health Act (MHA). With our report on this subject due to be published in the coming weeks, we look to find ways of addressing disparities in how deaths are investigated in MHA detention settings versus other areas of custody and what can be done to improve these investigations. We look forward to working with MBDC members over the course of this workplan to drive forward these improvements.

We will also be exploring several key areas for self-inflicted deaths in prison custody, such as access to mental health provision and developing a national approach to ligature reduction. In the coming weeks we will also be publishing our report examining the links between prison overcrowding and safety, in the wake of continuing capacity challenges within the prison system. We look forward to working to build on the model we have developed to explore how systemic risks from overcrowding can be better addressed in future.

We will be conducting reviews into the use of force during arrest, with a particular focus on deaths after detention under section 136 of the MHA and questions of disproportionality. We also intend to review and evaluate the safety landscape of an area that has tended to receive less attention than others – deaths of those in Approved Premises following release from prison.

Finally, we will be continuing some of our areas of focus from our previous workplan, such as improvements to the operation of key safeguards in the immigration detention estate, ways of improving responses to coroners’ Prevention of Future Death reports, improving support to better prevent suicides following police custody, and supporting learning and best practice for family liaison following deaths in custody.

You can read our workplan here.