Self-harm in jail blamed on abuse

ABUSE carried out against women by men was last night blamed for record levels of self-harm in the country's women-only jail.

New figures from the Scottish Prison Service (SPS) reveal there were 64 reports of self-harm, or planned or attempted self-harm, in Cornton Vale Prison last year.

The total is the highest of all of Scotland's prisons, and compares with seven reported incidents in 2004.

Twenty-one of the incidents in 2008 involved young offenders in the prison.

Dr Andrew Fraser, director of health and care at the SPS, said one reason why self-harm was far more common among female prisoners was because they were more likely to be "victims", having suffered physical, emotional and sexual abuse from boyfriends, husbands, fathers and pimps.

This, he said, drove many female offenders into drug abuse as a way of dealing with "appalling life experience".

Henry McLeish, ex-first minister and former chairman of the Scottish Prisons Commission, said increasingly overstretched services at Cornton Vale were contributing to soaring incidents of self-harm.