26/01/2017 BBC News at Six

Tonight at Six: Suicides, assaults and self-harm -

the human cost of the prisons crisis.

Suicides have reached record levels in England and Wales

and attacks on prison staff number in the thousands.

It's like a soldier on a battlefield.

You don't know what you're going to be faced with and,

"Am I going to make it home tonight?"

Ministers say they're investing more in the system,

Theresa May is on her way to meet President Trump.

She's under pressure to say that she disagrees

And he's stepping into another row - the Mexican President calls

off his meeting with Mr Trump in a stand-off over that wall.

A bleak future - one in five children in the UK now live

And washed up on a Welsh beach and close to death -

And coming up in the sport on BBC News:

Roger Federer's into the Australian Open men's final,

with Serena Williams up against sister Venus.

Good evening and welcome to the BBC News at Six.

There's been a record rise in suicides, assaults and self-harm

inside prisons in England and Wales, and the latest figures are a stark

reminder of the crisis in the penal system.

There were 354 deaths in prison custody last year.

Nearly 6,500 staff were assaulted in the year to last September -

And incidents of self-harm are up by nearly a quarter.

Our Home Affairs Correspondent, June Kelly, has been speaking to one

prison officer about what these figures mean once you walk

The rise in assaults, suicides and self harming is relentless.

The sense of crisis in the system was underlined by a riot

in Birmingham prison, where inmates posed

Just one of a string of jail disturbances in recent months.

Amid the volatile atmosphere, today's figures show that

in the past year a record number of prisoners have

It's very hard when you've got members of your family who...

Sarah is a long serving prison officer whose

She describes having to deal with a teenage suicide.

A self-inflicted death is a horrific experience.

You feel, is there something more I could have done?

I came on duty, and I went to perform a roll check.

I lifted the flap, and this young man was suspended in his cell.

We lay him on the bed, and I saw a note to his sister on the side,

and I saw it was his birthday, and I thought, what a waste.

Just describe the thoughts in your head as you're going into work.

When you open a door, you don't know what you're

I've had everything from urine, faeces, televisions thrown at me.

Prisons are awash with drugs and psychoactive substances that

All adding to the underlying problems of staff shortages

Vulnerable prisoners are suffering in the increasingly threatening

I am very clear that the levels of violence in our prisons are too

high, and the levels of self harm are too high.

Since I became Justice Secretary, I have focused on dealing

That's why we are investing an extra ?100 million.

2500 extra prison officers across the estate, so that we are able

to have a caseload of one prison officer for every six prisoners.

But Sarah says the challenge is not recruiting staff,

It's like a soldier on a battlefield.

You don't know what you are going to be faced with.

And on top of that, you've got the fear.

I've never been in fear of my life until now,

and we just don't get paid enough to have that fear everyday.

Our Home Editor, Mark Easton, is with me here.

We have seen those figures. How bad is it? Very serious, totally

unacceptable, not my words but the words of Liz Truss, the Justice

Secretary, describing prisons in England Wales. Though very few weeks

at the end of last year, we had all those rights in Bedford, Birmingham,

the Isle of Sheppey, Hull. We know that assaults on staff and suicides

are at record levels. Post a half of prisoners reoffend within a year of

leaving jail, two thirds among juvenile offenders, so the Ministry

of Justice has an enormous challenge. Its annual budget has

been cut by 15% and some of those savings come from prisons. They

somehow got to reduce running costs at the same time as reducing

violence and self harm and reoffending. There are more promises

of officers, more right teams and new legislation to cut reoffending,

but many offenders would argue that -- campaigners would argue that the

only sustainable solution is to either spend a lot more money or

lock up a lot fewer people. And there's a lot more detail

about the pressures on the prison That will take you to

the latest news and analysis Theresa May is flying

to America today, on her way to becoming the first

foreign leader to meet But, as she left, President Trump

sparked off a new controversy, saying that he thought torture

should be used when There's been widespread condemnation

of his remarks and MPs here are demanding that Mrs May

reaffirm Britain's In the last half an hour, Mrs May

has made her position clear, saying that there would be a question over

huge areas of security cooperation if America permitted torture again.

Theresa May setting out for Washington to collect what is

arguably a great prize, as the first foreign leader invited to sit down

with President Trump. But there are big risks as well. Of getting too

close to a man openly backing torture. When they are chopping off

the heads of people because they happen to be Christian in the Middle

East, when Isis are doing things nobody has heard of since medieval

times, would I feel strongly about waterboarding? As far as I'm

concerned, we have to fight fire with fire. The president has not yet

decided to return to waterboarding of terror suspects, a technique

designed to simulate drowning in the hope of extracting information but

if he allows it, the Prime Minister suggested to journalists she could

withdraw some sharing of British intelligence, a significant threat.

Back home, the opposition had demanded clarity. I want to be very

blunt that you cannot approach the problems of the world on the basis

that you will bring back torture, bring back waterboarding, you will

build a wall against your nearest neighbour. Britain has long opposed

the use of torture, although previous governments stand accused

of complicity in torture by others in the post-9/11 word. -- world.

Today, the Foreign Secretary we stated the official position. The

Prime Minister answered that in the House of Commons yesterday and she

was clear that our principal position and our objection to

torture remains unchanged. When Theresa May meets Donald Trump, she

must balance her desire to renew and to strengthen the special

relationship with a political requirement to confront the special

challenges which he poses. As well as torture, the two leaders disagree

on the threat from Russia and the usefulness of Nato. They disagree on

climate change, and yet both say they want a strong post-Brexit trade

deal, although Britain favours free trade and Mr Trump -- Mr Trump's

America does not. In America, Mrs May will first meet leading

republicans, many of whom do not support the president on torture and

do want a deal with Britain. The fact that she is coming to meet us

is testament to this being a very important relationship. In

Philadelphia, the security is in place and already it's clear that

her face-to-face talks with President Trump will be far from

straightforward. In the last hour, the President

of Mexico has cancelled his plans It follows Mr Trump's latest remarks

on Twitter about his controversial plan to build a border wall

between the two countries. Whether it's on social media

or his first TV interview since entering the White House,

Donald Trump has demonstrated once again that he is unlike any

previous president. Donald Trump's new executive toy,

his first ride today an Air Force One, one of the most potent symbols

of US presidential power. In prime time last night, America's new

reality show, the former property tycoon giving a tour of the

country's most prized piece of real estate. It is a picture of the

crowd. The audience was the biggest ever. And stopping repeatedly to

point out the new pictures, showing the crowd size at his inauguration.

I see it the sea of love, is something special. This was the

letter given to me by President Obama. He showed off the hand

written note given by his predecessor and was asked whether

taking over his office and wielding such awesome power had changed him.

I don't want to change much. I can be the most presidential person ever

apart from possibly the great Abraham Lincoln, but I can be the

most presidential person. He also stood by his widely dismissed claim

that millions of people voted illegally in the presidential

election, the reason he thinks Hillary Clinton won more votes

nationwide. Do you think that talking about millions of illegal

votes is dangerous to this country? Not at all because many people feel

the same. He is expected to sign an executive order later calling for an

investigation to vote fraud, and we are also expecting an order

temporarily banning immigrants from seven mainly Muslim countries from

entering the United States. Would that cause a Muslim backlash around

the world? The world is a mess, as angry as it gets. You think this is

going to cause a bit more anger? The world is an angry place. The world

is total mess. But there were more angry words this morning over the

wall along the Mexican border, with the Mexican president refusing to

pay for it and cancelling a planned visit to Washington next week after

Donald Trump suggested in a tweet that he should rethink his travel

plans. Almost a week into his term in office, it's already becoming

clear that Donald Trump is changing the presidency more than the

presidency is changing him. Mick Bryant, BBC News, Washington.

Let's get the view from our North America Editor, Jon Sopel.

Mexico - US stand-off, arguments about torture, quite a female

atmosphere for Theresa May to be walking into. Yes, and Theresa May

and Donald Trump could could not be more different in terms of

personality and character. Theresa May was asked about this on her

flight to Philadelphia. She said that sometimes opposites attract.

She will want the purpose of this to be an Brexit, trade, Nato, on the

potential of the special relationship but, in America and

Washington in particular, they talk about stray voltage. Just look at

the stray voltage there has been today. We have learned that the

senior management team at the State Department has resigned en masse. We

have heard that the Mexican president isn't coming any more

because of their Twitter spat. We have heard there has been a major

row in the Republican Party over torture and that Donald Trump is

going to sign this executive order on voter fraud, some of which,

according to the New York Times, the evidence for is based on a

conversation he is supposed to have had with the German golfer Bernhard

Langer. Apart from that, it's been a quiet morning in Washington.

Unions at Tata have recommended steel workers at its UK

plants accept a deal which includes pension reform.

The three unions said the offer was the "only credible and viable

Agreements on changes to pensions have been seen as essential

to future investment, including ?1 billion

at the Port Talbot plant in Wales over ten years.

A ballot on the offer is expected to go ahead on Monday.

There was some good news on the economy today.

New figures for the final three months of last year show the economy

It's quite a contrast from the gloomy predictions before

last year's referendum, suggesting that a vote to leave

But, as our Economics Editor, Kamal Ahmed, reports,

there could still be pain on the way.

It was Napoleon who famously and sarcastically called us a nation of

shopkeepers, and the government will be pleased today that the UK economy

is still one based on consumers and the high street. Britain's services

sector, 80% of the economy, was the reason for the positive figures for

shoppers in Reading, it was good business as usual. A lot of people

thought that the referendum and the vote to leave would mean consumers

might be nervous, what is the future, and would stop spending. Did

you find that was true? I haven't seen any difference personally. I

think consumer spending will maintain itself and, long-term, I

think we are in for a good ride. I think we are in an unstable

situation, I really do. We have got nothing that is filling us with

confidence. Instability, lack of confidence, they drove a myriad of

warnings before the referendum. There would be a hit to the value of

peoples homes, at least 10% and to 18%. Material slowdown in growth,

increase in inflation. Higher prices, less growth means less jobs,

so higher unemployment. We are indeed a nation of shoppers and,

frankly, those gloomy predictions before the referendum haven't come

to pass. Consumer confidence is still strong, business confidence is

still strong but, with inflation rising and Britain actually still to

start the process of leaving the EU, which of course we haven't done yet,

will that confidence remain? - The Chancellor meeting apprentices

at Microsoft, a company that is investing in the UK. I asked him

about the Bank of England forecast that said growth could slow next

year. This is economic pain cancelled or it delayed? What the

figures show is that the UK economy continues to be resilient and

continues to confound the sceptics. Of course, we recognise that as we

go into this period of negotiation with the European Union and we

absorb the impacts of deappreciation of sterling, there will be more

uncertainty ahead during this year. British built cars off to the

continent today as production reached a 17-year high. But there is

still that breb ever Brexit shadow. We are getting comments from our

members saying they're waiting to see what the future's going to hold

and for that greater certainty about the future relationship with Europe.

The nation of shoppers forges on. Britain's growth last year was the

highest of any of the major western economies. Are we still waiting for

the full Brexit effect? There's been a record rise

in suicides, assaults and self-harm And still to come:

and Wales. Why Menai the rare turtle is

receiving the best medical attention Captain Eoin Morgan and Joe Root

lead the way for England's cricketers in a seven-wicket win

over India in the first of three Poverty is blighting the lives

of nearly one in five children in the UK and those

from the most deprived backgrounds are experiencing

significantly worse health compared That's according

to a new study by the Royal College of Paediatrics

and Child Health. Britain is ranked 15th out

of 19 Western European countries on infant deaths

under the age of one. 40% of children in England's

most deprived areas And half of adult mental

health problems start Our health correspondent,

Dominic Hughes has more details: What happens in the early years of

childhood is crucial to our health in later life. But today's report

into the state of children's health in the UK shows many children are at

risk of missing out on the best start in life. And as these parents

in Oldham know, it is not always easy. I think it is like the money

side, there is so many single parents and it is children bringing

up children. A lot of people who are unemployed don't seem to know about

anything to do with child health. There is a lot of young mums that

haven't got the support from their mum or haven't got a partner. That

that situation and they don't know where to go for advice. Oldham is

one of the most deprived towns in the UK and it is in such places that

the health of children tr poorer families is at risk. The report

shows when it comes to children's health the UK is falling behind

other European nations. And it lays bare the impact that poverty can

have. But the picture within the UK is extremely mixed. In Scotland, 19%

of mothers smoke during pregnancy. The highest rate in the UK. 40% of

children in England's most deprived areas are overweight or obese.

Northern Ireland has the highest infant mortality rate. And in Wales,

13% of 15-year-olds are reported to consume alcohol once a week. But

poverty is the common factor. It blights in a number of ways, whether

it is access to services, education, whether it is ability to live a

healthier life. All of these things are much more manifest when you're

poor. For those who work with families to improve children's

health, part of the solution at least is simple. There is a role for

education with young people before their pregnant, perhaps in schools,

with teenagers. I don't think we have perhaps do enough there around

preparation for parenthood and what it will be like to be a parent and

what sort of parent they would like to be. All four Governments in the

UK have welcomed the report and pledged to improve the prospects of

next generation. The Labour leader, Jeremy Corbyn,

has said his MPs will face a three-line whip compelling them

to vote to invoke Article 50. The Government has published

legislation allowing the process A draft two-line law

entered the Commons today, Our Deputy Political Editor John

Pienaar is in Westminster for us. So this Brexit bill, will it get

through? Well, this, the Government's plan has had to change.

Theresa May hope's to start the EU divorce without having to get the

nod from Parliament. But she lost the fight in the courts and we have

this, which gives Theresa May the right to start negotiations at a

time of her choosing. Will it get through? Very comfortably. Most MPs

don't feel they can defy the referendum and Jeremy Corbyn has

been telling his MPs they have to vote with the Government. They have

got to go with the referendum result. So it does look as if

Theresa May at this stage will get her way. That is causing Labour some

big problems isn't it? Yes, we always used to see the Conservative

Party as the party with the fault line on Europe. And Labour has the

fault line as big. Labour MPs represent areas where people want to

leave and Jeremy Corbyn has asked his MPs to vote in favour of the

talks, but one has resigned and others will again vote against the

bill and he will have to decide whether to sack them. It is a

dilemma. A choice between tolerance and accepting the differences in the

party or enforcing discipline. But ministers can be confident or at

least getting to the starting line of the long, hard slog towards

Brexit. Thank you. A brief look at some of the day's

other other news stories. The mystery of a body found a year

ago on Saddleworth Moor in Greater Manchester

has been solved. Police made numerous public appeals

for information after he was found lying on the hillside with no

identification or phone. A DNA match has now

confirmed his identity The families of the victims

of the Birmingham pub bombings will get legal aid funding

at new inquests, because of Lawyers for the families of some

of the 21 people killed in the 1974 blasts had called for an "equality

of arms" on funding to allow them The comedian, Rory McGrath,

has been given a suspended ten-week jail sentence,

after he admitted stalking a married A five-year restraining order

was also imposed on him. Huntingdon Magistrates Court

heard that the 60-year-old sent the woman messages,

followed her in the street and sent her husband

letters when she tried Now, turtles being washed

up on British beaches is quite unusual, but this

one - found stranded near the Menai Straight -

has caused a real stir. It's a critically endangered

Olive Ridley and it's a long way from its home on the other side

of the Atlantic. Now it's being cared

for at Anglesey Sea Zoo, as our Wales Correspondent

Sian Lloyd reports. An early morning start and another

step on a journey that could eventually lead to this tropical sea

turtle being released She was driven all the way

from Anglesey, where she was found Six hours later and the team at

the Royal Veterinary Hospital were They have never seen an Olive Ridley

here before, Menai is the first to be spotted in British

waters since records began almost Getting a sea turtle

into the scanning machine is no easy task, but experts need

to check her lungs for damage. Look and see her shell

and we can see her lungs and we can see also that there is some

gas, which is black and that is So it is free gas and that's

potentially responsible Staff caring for her on Anglesey had

noticed that Menai was unable She may be struggling

to dive, but the team are delighted by her appetite,

which is helping her regain weight. She is a real character,

we have got to know her, she is sort of starting

to to eat really well now. She is demolishing

sort of a couple of kilos of calamari a day

and she's a real personality. Olive Ridleys can travel

vast distances, but it's thought this one was carried

by currents thousands of miles Menai the Turtle has been

through a lot and now it's time Gel is being applied to prevent her

skin from drying and she is being kept warm, ready for her

journey back to Anglesey, while It has been beautifully sunny in

Anglesey. But this is Norfolk. Look at this grey picture and it was

bitterly cold. The sunshine shone not just in north-west Wales, but in

much of Scotland. What a contrast. There is your 13 in Highland

Scotland. Minus two in East Anglia under that continental cloud and

that cloud is moving north-west, tending to diminish and allowing the

frost to form. There will be some hill fog across the Pennines, the

Peak District and the Welsh mountains. These are the city

temperatures. And there will be some drizzle and even some snow,

particularly in central and eastern areas and that means it will be icy.

You can see the change in Northern Ireland, a weather front, yes, a

cold and frosty morning, not so much in Northern Ireland and the South

West. But there could be some slippery conditions tomorrow morning

through the rush hour. Particularly on untreated roads and pavements.

But we keep that continental air in the east, but through the day

although those showers could fall as snow, its will get less cold. Come

Saturday, we are all in that less cold south-westerly wind. Not

particularly warm. Only five or six degrees. This is our fly in the

ointment for the weekend, how far north this low pressure will push

the rain. At the moment it looks like the central areas will get that

and dry in the north. That's all from the BBC News at Six,

so it's goodbye from me and on BBC One we now join the BBC's

news teams where you are.