A NORTH-EAST jail has been included on a new list of shame because of its high number of prisoner suicides.

Five inmates took their lives at Durham Prison between January 2004 and October last year, according to figures released to MPs as part of an ongoing inquiry.

It was the fourth-worst figure of any prison in the country, behind Manchester, Gloucester and Norwich, all of which had seven victims.

The Howard League for Penal Reform, which handed the figures to the Home Affairs Select Committee, said the findings were a shaming indictment of Britain's prison system.

The campaign group blamed overcrowding, pointing to a direct link between the most cramped prisons and the highest number of suicides. Home Office figures released to the committee revealed Durham to be 51 per cent over capacity, with 748 inmates instead of 496.

Howard League director Frances Crook said judges should not send more people to overcrowded prisons when there were effective community sentences available.

She said: "With the present level of overcrowding in our prisons, people are literally condemned to an early death, despite the best efforts of over-stretched prison staff."

A Home Office spokesman said: "There was a fall in the number of self-inflected deaths in prison last year.

"The Government takes the issue of suicide in prisons very seriously and, in the face of population pressures, suicide-prevention efforts have continued with unprecedented energy and commitment."

A Howard League report last year revealed that 23 prisoners took their lives at Durham Prison in the decade to March 2004 -the third highest number in the country.

Twice last year, Durham Coroner Andrew Tweddle wrote to the Prison Service to highlight shortcomings in the handling of vulnerable prisoners at Durham after suicide inquests.

Recently appointed regional manager for the Prisons Service Niall Clifford, a former Durham governor, pledged an overhaul of every aspect of the prison, accepting significant improvements were needed.

Nationally, 804 people committed suicide in prison in England and Wales in the past ten years. Fifty-five per cent were on remand at the time.

The high number of suicides -95 in all prisons in 2004 and 78 last year -points to a highly critical report when the committee publishes its conclusions shortly.