SELF-HARM in prisons has hit a record high with the rate having doubled over the last decade, official figures revealed today.

Deaths in custody are also on the rise, with 317 fatalities in the 12 months to March this year, according to Ministry of Justice data.

The department said there were 55,598 incidents of self-harm in 2018 — equivalent to one every nine-and-a-half minutes.

Deborah Coles, director of state-related deaths charity Inquest, said the figures were a “national scandal.”

She said: “Every four days, a person in prison takes their own life.

“Levels of distress have never been higher with more than 152 recorded incidents of self-harm in prison every day.

“The government have long been on notice about the perilous state of our prisons. 

“Yet life-saving recommendations from inquests and oversight bodies are systematically ignored.”

Eighty-seven of the 317 deaths were self-inflicted and included four female prisoners, according to the charity.

Shadow justice secretary Richard Burgon said he was concerned about the number of assaults taking place in prisons.

There were 34,223 assaults in 2018, a 16 per cent increase from 2017.

Mr Burgon said: “New record levels of assaults on staff and prisoners and of self-harm are a damning indictment of the government’s failure to get a grip on the prisons crisis.

“You cannot do justice on the cheap and this unprecedented wave of violence is the direct result of the Tories’ reckless decision to axe thousands of prison officers and slash prison budgets.

“The Tories now need to admit that their austerity policies have unleashed this prisons crisis and put forward an emergency plan with new funds to make our prisons safe and humane for staff and inmates.

“Without that, violence in our prisons will remain out of control.”

Prison officers are becoming increasingly at risk of serious and “life-changing injuries” because prisons are getting more violent and dangerous, Prison Officers’ Association national chairman Mark Fairhurst said.

The POA has called for guards to be equipped with pava incapacitant spray.

However, Ms Coles has opposed that demand.

She said: “Prison safety cannot be resolved by framing it as a drugs problem or weaponising staff with pava spray. 

“Punitive responses have not worked and will not work.”

“Bold and decisive action is needed to tackle sentencing policy; reducing prison numbers; and redirecting resources to community services.”