Coping with Covid: Lockdown measures causing a mental health crisis in prison

An innovative study by User Voice, together with Queen’s University Belfast, has highlighted the impact of severe regime restrictions in prisons across England and Wales following the Covid-19 pandemic. The ‘Coping with Covid in Prisons’ research found that prolonged solitary confinement for the prison population has led to a dramatic increase in the levels of anxiety and depression, with a third of prisoners showing symptoms of “severe anxiety disorder”.

The study, one of the most comprehensive studies of life in prison during the pandemic, drew on an innovative peer-led methodology, centred on co-production. Nearly 100 serving prisoners were trained in research methods to survey their peers, completing 1400 surveys with prisoners across 11 prisons. Participating prisons were given institutional anonymity to prevent additional or specific scrutiny on their individual prisons.

The research found:

85% of surveyed prisoners were confined to cells for 23 hours for the majority of the lockdown period.

• 59% of surveyed prisoners had not had a single family visit during the Covid lockdown.
• Standard wellbeing screening tools suggest depression and anxiety scores are almost 5 times higher than the standard for the general population.
• More than 1 out of 3 prisoners were scoring at the level of “severe anxiety disorder” indicating high levels of post-traumatic stress.
• Two thirds of survey respondents said that access to mental health support had worsened, instead of improving, during the lockdown.
• 1 out of 5 respondents thought that violence had reduced in the prisons because of the lockdown.
• Reports that the face of prison violence had changed to more verbal bullying and coercion, and some felt lockdown exacerbated the risk of violent outbreaks or ‘rioting’.
• Communication was described as ‘the biggest thing’ impacting prisoners’ experience, resulting in uncertainty, with institution information pathways characterised by inconsistency.

User Voice’s founder and CEO, Mark Johnson, said:

“When almost no one was able to get into prisons, we were able to conduct one of the largest studies of prisoner experiences. The report reveals one of the darkest and most hidden results of the pandemic, the true effects of extreme lockdown and confinement on prisoners.”

Juliet Lyon, Chair of the Independent Advisory Panel on Deaths in Custody, said:

“For people effectively held in a prison within a prison, confined to small, poorly ventilated cells for up to 23 hours a day for over two years, these are still desperate times. The punishment of imprisonment is loss of liberty — not permanently impaired mental and physical health and not, at worst, loss of life.”

You can watch a video highlighting the impact of the pandemic in prisons below, featuring Chair of the IAPDC, Juliet Lyon:

Find more information on Covid-19 in prisons, and other places of custody.