PRISONS need to clamp down on the amount of drugs being smuggled through to inmates after a shocking rise in prisoners committing suicide, according to the mayor of Millom.

A record 102 people have committed suicide across prisons in England and Wales so far this year, according to a report conducted by The Howard League for Penal Reform, including one inmate at HMP Haverigg.

With less than five weeks remaining until the end of the year, this is the first time that more than 100 people have committed suicide in prisons since records began in 1978.

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The report states prisons must become safer and healthier places to reduce suicide risk and mayor of Millom, councillor Doug Wilson, wants to see a reduction in the amount of drugs finding their way to inmates - and less bullying inside prisons.

He said: "I suggest that suicide rates can be related to drug taking, bullying and the general inability of the prison authorities to exercise adequate control of what is going on.

"I know that drugs play a part in suicide per se and it's been proven that anybody that gets hooked and becomes desperate for drugs will have a tendency to be unbalanced and do things they would not normally do.

"Nobody wants to see guys locked up in prisons and chained to walls but the fact that they can get drugs and gaming machines in itself is worrying. We are supposed to stop drugs coming in. There shouldn't be any - only prescribed drugs."

Mr Wilson is also concerned about the welfare of prison officers after recent strikes over an increase of violence in jails and wants a full-scale review into the prison system nationwide.

He added: "If you talk to local people they will say that prisoners have a better time of it than the wardens who are more under threat and more likely to get assaulted than prisoners and that can't be right.

"We need to do something quickly or else we are going to lose control altogether."

"It is a good prison authority here in Haverigg with good people trying to do a good job but I think their hands are tied by rules and regulations that have been implemented over recent years and don't let them control things the way they should be."

The alarming suicide rate in prisons correlates to 120 deaths per 100,000 people, which is about 10 times higher than the rate in the general population.

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Frances Crook, chief executive of the Howard League for Penal Reform, wants the government to cut down on the number of inmates to prevent overcrowding in prisons which she hopes will reduce the suicide risk.

She said: "No one should be so desperate while in the care of the state that they take their own life, and yet every three days a family is told that a loved one has died behind bars.

"By taking bold but sensible action to reduce the number of people in prison, we can save lives and prevent more people being swept away into deeper currents of crime and despair."