ABSTRACT
The chapter considers three issues. First, it deconstructs the data around deaths and incidents of self-harm in male prisons in England and Wales. Second, it critically analyses the nature of the prison regimes in which many of these deaths, and incidents of self-harm, occur. It focuses on the toxic, dehumanising and unsafe nature of the regime in Birmingham men’s prison. This is the context, both in Birmingham, and elsewhere, within which individuals choose to kill themselves, engage in self-harm, or both. In doing so, the chapter challenges the state’s definition of reality with its emphasis on the pathological nature of the individuals who kill themselves. It argues that not only does the physical violence of the state kill, but the systemic indifference of state servants can also induce death in prison. Finally, it considers the need to transcend the reformist politics which have dominated the state’s response to deaths in custody and argues, instead, for an abolitionist position around deaths in custody.
