Prisoner Cut Off His Penis... Before Trying To Flush It Down The Toilet
A PRISON inmate cut off his penis and tried to flush it down a toilet.
The prisoner, who has not been named, was found by wardens at Bristol Prison bleeding heavily with a ‘serious injury’.
Paramedics from the South Western Ambulance Service NHS Foundation Trust were called to the Horfield jail at around 10.10am last Friday.
They had received a report from the prison that the man in his 40s had serious bleeding, and that he might be unconscious.
Paramedics worked to stem the bleeding before taking the man to Southmead Hospital, the Bristol Evening Post Reports.
A Prison Service spokesman said the injury was self-inflicted and that no other prisoners had been involved in the incident.
He added: 'A prisoner from HMP Bristol suffered injuries during an incident on Friday. Paramedics were called and the offender was taken to hospital for further treatment.’
It is not the first time such an incident has happened at the Prison.
In November 2007, an inmate mutilated himself and tried to cut off his penis using a prison-issue razor.
The Category B Bristol Prison accommodates adult male prisoners and a limited number of young offenders, with the majority staying for less than a year.
Juliet Lyon, director of the Prison Reform Trust, warned that such incidents are on the rise due to staffing problems.
She said: 'The trust is concerned about rising levels of violence and self-harm incidents across the prison estates and the drastic reductions in the number of staff.
'Prisons hold a number of people with complex needs, some of whom could be diverted at police stations or courts into the treatment they need.’
She said that more could be done for people in custody.
A report earlier this year by the HM Inspectorate of Prisons in February said more than a quarter of inmates at Bristol had reported mental health problems.
Worryingly, it found there were 'significant limitations’ on resources the prison had when it came to addressing the needs of those prisoners, and that not enough was done to protect vulnerable inmates.
Inspectors also found levels of violence had risen sharply since 2013 and were among the worst in the UK’s Category B prisons..
Pictures courtesy of Rex Features
