Worrying increase in prison suicides
Over the last two years there has been a surge in the number of prisoners committing suicide. If from 2008 to 2010, and before that, there were 40-44 cases of suicide each year, in 2011 the figure had risen by 34%. The situation in 2012 was even worse: 55 people committed suicide, of whom 14 were being held in SIZO. [pre-trial detention centre].
This is a frightening 54% increase since 2008-2010.
2012 also saw a very high number of deaths in Ukrainian prison – 1, 022, of whom 179 people died in SIZO. This was in fact lower than in 2011 when 1, 169 people died, nonetheless the level on 2012 is 33% higher than the average for 2008-2010.
Показники | 1.1.2004 | 1.1.2008 | 1.1.2009 | 1.1.2010 | 1.1.2011 | 1.1.2012 | 1.1.2013 |
Number of people in places of confinement | 191677 | 149690 | 145946 | 147716 | 154027 | 154029 | 147112 |
Number who died | 824 | 729 | 765 | 761 | 808 | 1169 | 1021 |
Per 1 thousand prisoners | 4.30 | 4.87 | 5.24 | 5.15 | 5.25 | 7.59 | 6.94 |
Cases of suicide | 41 | 54 | 40 | 44 | 44 | 59 | 65 |
Per 1 thousand prisoners | 0.21 | 0.36 | 0.27 | 0.30 | 0.9 | 0.383 | 0.442 |
People with tuberculosis in an active form | 9080 | 6195 | 6079 | 5667 | 5486 | 4822 (?) | нема даних |
Per 1 thousand prisoners | 47.37 | 41.4 | 41.65 | 38.36 | 35.62 |
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HIV-positive | 1917 | 5017 | 5073 | 6069 | 6020 | 6910 | 6957 |
Per 1 thousand prisoners | 10.0 | 33.5 | 34.8 | 41.1 | 39.1 | 44.9 | 47.3 |
Oleksandr Bukalov, Head of Donetsk Memorial writes that the State Penitentiary Service has not taken measures to determine the reasons for the considerable increase in prison deaths nor to reduce the number. He dismisses the reference to prisoners who are HIV positive or who suffer from tuberculosis, pointing out this was always the case. Nor does the increase in either figure necessarily lead to an increase in the number of deaths. Quite the contrary, he says. With an increase in the number of people with HIV in 2009 by 996, the number of deaths actually fell by 4.
Nor, of course, does any of this explain the sharp rise in the number of suicides, and Donetsk Memorial rightly demands that the Penitentiary Service provide the real causes.
From the report here http://ukrprison.org.ua/statistics/1359687615