PRISONER death rates have shot up in the last decade, with overcrowding and lack of staff to blame, the Prisons and Probation Ombudsman warned yesterday.

The ombudsman’s new study shows that more than a third of prison deaths in 2013 were self-inflicted after the highest rise in years. 

Eighty-eight people took their own lives amid the crisis in prison overcrowding which experts said had slashed opportunities for rehabilitation through education and leisure.