SUICIDES in solitary confinement are on the rise as safeguarding of prisoners’ mental health is ignored, research by the prisons watchdog revealed today.

In their latest bulletin, the Prisons and Probation Ombudsman blew the whistle on “segregation” practices inside British prisons which in 2013-14 resulted in eight deaths.

This figure is the highest in the last decade and accounted for 9 per cent of all suicidal deaths in prison last year.