Deaths within two weeks of prison release hit record high in England and Wales

The number of people who die within two weeks of being released from prison in England and Wales has reached a record high, a Guardian investigation has found. Seventy-seven people died within 14 days of being released from prison in 2025, 28% higher than the 60 deaths recorded the previous year and the highest since records began in 2021. Experts said a primary driver of the crisis was a rise in prisoners being released into homelessness, with too many falling through “trap doors to crisis” owing to a lack of available housing. Analysis of Prisons and Probation Ombudsman (PPO) reports published to date found that one in four people who died were released homeless. Separate Ministry of Justice data showed that almost 13,000 people left prison homeless or as rough sleepers in the year to April 2025, a 39% rise from the previous year. The reports detail cases including that of Robert Barraclough, who died the day after being released from HMP Nottingham in October 2022, aged 47. He had told staff he was afraid of having to sleep in a tent in the cold on his release, and began to self-harm in prison. Darren Docherty, 48, had a history of mental ill health and self-harm, and killed himself six days after being released from HMP Stoke Heath in August 2023. He had told his GP that stress of having nowhere to live was affecting his mental health, and he had been living in a tent after being turned down for emergency accommodation via the council. …