The death of Frederick West was one of the media events of the new year which raises serious questions about the treatment of vulnerable prisoners.

Some 61 people took their own lives in prison in 1994.

This was a 30% increase over 1993 and 11 more than the previous high of 50 in 1990.

While seven of those who died were serving life sentences and a further three were on remand facing a possible life sentence, most did not resemble Mr West.

Twenty-five were aged 25 or under and most were suspected or convicted of theft, burglary or robbery.The sharp increase in self-inflicted deaths is partly due to the leap in the prison population from 40,000 in December 1992 to 50,000 in December 1994.Over-crowding is now endemic.

It puts stress on staff and makes the implementation of the Prison Service's suicide prevention policy almost impossible.By any definition, Mr West must have been extremely vulnerable and likely to be targeted as a 'nonce' by fellow prisoners.

This alone makes his placement on normal location quite astonishing.

His death also reveals an amazing lack of foresight.

It could seriously affect the evidence produced against his wife and may well deny the families of the victims a public hearing of the facts.There are no guarantees that being placed on a 'vulnerable' unit or defined as at risk of suicide and self-harm would have prevented Mr West's death.

This is not, as many argue, because a determined, suicidal prisoner will always find a way to die.

It is because the average prison regime does not allow for the level of supervision and care required.Despite the recent establishment within the Prison Service of a specialist suicide awareness support unit and two new instructions to governors in the past year, the gap between policy and practice is still wide.In May 1994, the Howard League established an independent commission of inquiry chaired by Helena Kennedy QC.

Its focus is violent behaviour involving teenagers up to the age of 18 who are in penal custody or secure accommodation.

Twenty-five commissioners have visited 16 local prisons and young offender institutions, 11 local authority secure units and both youth treatment centres.The commission's report will be published in April but already the inquiry has found disturbing levels of self-harm, often connected with bullying and other forms of intimidation, which the Prison Service seems unable substantially to reduce.We regularly observed wings where one prison officer was 'looking after' 30 people.

Intense regional rivalry between the young people and widespread 'taxing' of personal belongings is the norm.

The personal officer scheme, central to official suicide prevention and anti-bullying policies, is virtually non-existent.Those considered at risk of self-harm are supposed to be on a 15-minute watch but we left a number of institutions feeling that staff shortages or lack of interest made this unlikely.

We spoke to many young prisoners who, as a cry for help, had cut themselves or put nooses round their necks.Many prison staff clearly find juvenile remands difficult.

We were told at Gloucester Prison: '...it was a bit like Beirut when it first started...it was designed for adults not teenagers...we had buckets of urine thrown under doors, lighted paper through door flaps and windows...batteries fired from sling-shots into the adult wings and every window in the wing was kicked out...'At Swansea Prison a senior officer compla ined: '...there's no officially structured programme for them...you can pick up a feel for their problems...but you need to know what you're looking for.

There are problems in moving them about if they're getting bullied.

It's clear what should be done...the bully should be put somewhere else, but we don't have the facilities, we don't have the room...I had to cut one off the bars a few years ago...I know what it's like...no one knows what to look for with a 15 year-old...'Little is done to address the effect of a prisoner's death on other prisoners.

A 16 year old in a remand centre told us: '...the day "Peter" hung himself, we were joking around and saying we should be padded up together...he'd had lots of tobacco and was being badly taxed...he just couldn't take being locked up...he was already regarded as a suicide risk...later that night, I heard the noise when they cut him down...they tried to resuscitate him outside my cell door...but I was told it took them five minutes to cut him down...his face was blue...and the night officer was very upset...he went on leave...no one came and spoke to me...'17-year-old Joseph Stanley, an Irish traveller, hanged himself in Cardiff Prison on 10 May 1994.

At the inquest, evidence was heard that he was a 'happy-go-lucky' lad whose death came as a great shock to prison staff.

While there is no suggestion that staff were culpable, nothing was heard about the culture of bullying which Howard League commissioners observed in the prison nor the likelihood of an Irish traveller being outside the existing peer groups.The government's preferred solution to these problems is to build more prisons or re-open dilapidated juvenile wings in local prisons like Hull.

Remanding an alleged serial killer is one thing, although this does not remove the Prison Service's duty of care, but imprisoning increasing numbers of people like Joseph Stanley - young, unemployed and charged with theft and criminal damage to a motor vehicle - cannot be justified as a safe or positive option.

Instead, the vast sums being spent on prisons ought to be re-directed into bail support and non-custodial alternatives.