Genocide (art. 2 of UN convention ratified 1952)
'Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group'
'Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part'
Suicides of males of 2023-2024 = 3042*
Suicides of people under police management = (674) There were 360 self-inflicted deaths between April 2022 and March 2023, and there were 314 deaths unexplained.**
Its commonly supposed by the general public that deaths of offenders are guilt-related. Undoubtedly this is a factor. However, looking at some academic (and government reporting) suggests many offenders kill themselves simply because of frustration at their inability to rejoin society and carry on. Example:
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2666353820300059This has been my personal experience (being driven to kill myself at the probation office, after having my training and education prevented, and my 18m relationship undermined to destruction), which was labelled as 'revenge' against the system. I was convicted of possession of indecent images, certainly a shameful offence, but that criminal record is in my experience a complete barrier to having anything like a normal life permanently, even after 6 years of rehabilitation and counselling (which I have paid for myself). I was actually rebuilding my life, with a job and a long term relationship before my conviction (the length of time the police took to investigate [two unencrypted devices] at over a year is another factor I feel is depressing people to the point of suicide because they can't move on during that time).
I feel that agents with the criminal justice system (CJS) are far too inclined to blame the offenders for these issues, rather than make a meaningul effort to help them rehabilitate. Certainly access to the NHS is a joke - they do not have the resources for general mental health let alone the specialist knowledge of what makes people offend, and cannot change the approach of the CJS, so the problems just escalate. I found some NHS professionals very judgemental indeed (although some frontline staff were fantastic).
Hence my title 'Genocide' because every agent I have interacted with has ignored the issues. Also the police have NO POLICY FOR MENTALLY DISABLED people only mental health issues (I am austistic and find the SHPO challenging). When I have raised simple points for improvement, they have pretty much laughed in my face (includes ironically probation, but police as well). Everyone just wants to follow procedure. I think following orders blindly makes you no better than a concentration camp guard during WW2 (many criminals and mentally disabled people were murdered).
I'm currently facing a court case and further prosecution for failing to declare a pc I was sent and never used for review. I am guilty of this. But its mainly down to the autism which I have finally received medication for after waiting two years. The police know this, but want to follow 'the process'. Pointless? I think so.
*
https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/near-to-real-time-suspected-suicide-surveillance-nrtsss-for-england/statistical-report-near-to-real-time-suspected-suicide-surveillance-nrtsss-for-england-for-the-15-months-to-august-2023#findings**
https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/deaths-of-offenders-in-the-community-annual-update-to-march-2023/deaths-of-offenders-in-the-community-annual-update-to-march-2023***
https://www.justiceinspectorates.gov.uk/hmiprobation/wp-content/uploads/sites/5/2022/07/Suicide-and-self-harm-staff-experiences-v1.0.pdf