The rising death toll in prisons has been described as a ‘national scandal’ by prisons charity the Howard League.
The statistical bulletin published by the Ministry of Justice on the 29 January 2026 showed a 15% increase in the deaths in prison from 2024 to 2025, amounting to a total death toll of 394 people. Of the 394 deaths, 79 died in circumstances labelled as ‘self-inflicted.’ The number of women who died has also increased from nine in 2024 to 13 in 2025.
The latest figures exceed the previous highest death toll in prisons in England and Wales, which reached 371 in 2021. At the time, this was thought to be exacerbated by the prison lockdowns from the Covid-19 Pandemic.
In response to the bulletin, Andrea Coomber KC, Chief Executive of the Howard League said: ‘The dire state of our prisons is revealed starkly in today’s figures. When almost 400 people die behind bars in a single year, it is a national scandal…’ She went on to state that more action is required to save lives and help prisoners move on from crime.
The bulletin also reported increased rates of prison violence with 31,555 assaults reported, which was a 6% rise from 2024. The rate of assaults was also shown to be 83% higher in female prisons than in male establishments.
When asked on her views of the revealed prison death toll, MP Kim Johnson said the Ministry of Justice Report exposes the ‘deep, systemic crises at the heart of our prisons.’
These latest figures only build on concerns that were expressed last year following the 2024 bulletin from the Ministry of Justice, which at the time, had shown a 10% rise in prison deaths from 2023 with seven homicides, which was the highest amount seen since 2015. In response last year, a statement from the Howard League had stated that, ‘no statistic can adequately convey the scale of suffering and human misery that exists behind bars’ and they called to reform the ‘neglect and decay in a toxic system.’
The 2025 statistical bulletin did however show there have been some improvements. There was a 4.3% decrease in incidents of self-harm from the previous year with the rate of these incidents falling by 3.2% in men’s institutions, and by 2.8% in women’s. There was also a decrease of 12% in self-inflicted deaths in the previous 12 months.
The Howard League acknowledged that the government has implemented change to reduce pressure on the prison population but stated that more work is required. Andrea Coomber stated that the death toll ‘overshadows the otherwise encouraging slight decrease in the very high rates of self-harm incidents’.
