GOVERNMENT staffing cuts have seen suicide levels in English and Welsh jails rocket to a seven-year high, campaigners said yesterday.

A total of 235 people died while behind bars, Howard League for Penal Reform analysis of official figures showed.

Howard League chief executive Frances Crook said: “Hard-pressed prison staff have to save lives by cutting people down almost every day and without this the death toll would be even higher.

“It is evident that people are dying as a direct result of the cuts to the number of staff, particularly more experienced staff, in every prison.”

Prison Officers Association (POA) spokesman Glynn Travis told the Star: “The POA has warned for more than a year that we cannot continue to see reductions in front-line staff with a prison population that is yo-yoing and a system which is no longer fit for purpose.”