Harris Review report published
In July 2015, Lord Harris published Changing Prisons, Saving Lives, the report of his independent review into self-inflicted deaths in custody of 18- to 24-year-olds from 1 April 2007 to 31 December 2013.
The review was set up as a direct result of INQUEST's policy and lobbying work for a public inquiry into the deaths of children and young people. Calls for a public inquiry were rejected and instead a much smaller-scale and private review was ordered.
The critical review made over 100 recommendations, from the amount of time young people should spend out of their cell to the provision of non-means-tested legal aid.
INQUEST was heavily involved in the review, largely through coordinating Family Listening Days, where the review panel were directly exposed to families' voices and experiences. INQUEST also put forward two submissions that you can download below.
The government outright rejected a third of the recommendations and within five months of the report's publication another five young people had died in prison.
Click below to download the report and INQUEST's full submissions.
