- Home /
- Statewatch Database /
- Prisons
Preventing the deaths of women in prison: the need for an alternative approach. INQUEST, June 2013, pp. 18.
Prisons
Preventing the deaths of women in prison: the need for an alternative approach. INQUEST, June 2013, pp. 18.
01 February 2014
The INQUEST charity has been monitoring deaths in custody in England and Wales for 30 years and its research findings are used in this report to highlight the shared experiences of 100 women who died in prison between 2002 and 2013. The report considers 38 fatalities that have occurred in the six years since the publication of the Corston report (into the deaths of six women over a 12-month period at Styal prison) in March 2007. A more in-depth understanding of the context in which the deaths of women occurred, and the special vulnerability of women in prison, is examined through the stories of six of the women who died in prison. The report stresses that the government has not implemented Corston’s key recommendation - the dismantling of the women’s prison estate - and points to its failure to ensure fundamental changes to policy and practice as well as the inability of the prison estate to learn from previous investigations and inquests. The INQUEST report concludes with a call for a radical overhaul of the way women in conflict with the law are treated.
Download from:
link
Dying prisoners routinely chained to hospital beds. Eric Allison and Simon Hattenstone,
The Guardian, 8 November 2013.
This article reports a Guardian investigation which revealed that “prisoners who are seriously and terminally ill are routinely chained in hospitals despite posing no security risk.” Allison cites a number of cases to illustrate the practice that is described by Labour MP, Glenda Jackson, as “disgusting and horrific” and by Deborah Coles, co-director of INQUEST, as a “shocking abuse of power.” A spokesman for the Prison Service defended the practice arguing that public protection was the top priority.
See:
link
Report on an unannounced inspection of HMP Oakwood, 10-21 June 2013. HM Chief Inspector of Prisons, October 2013, pp.111.
The UK’s largest prison, HMP Oakwood, which is located near Wolverhampton, opened in April 2012 under the management of G4S. The privately-run “supersized” prison can accommodate 1,600 prisoners, but despite its modern facilities this report finds that it failed to live up to it aspirational website mission statement to “inspire, motivate and guide prisoners to become the best they can be.” This report is the prison’s first inspection and it raises a number of concerns, including prisoner frustration at being unable to obtain basic requirements such as clothing, toiletries and cleaning materials – with some prisoners claiming that it was easier to obtain drugs than a bar of soap. The report also found that too many prisoners felt unsafe with high levels of assaults and self-harm, support services were practically non-existent and processes to support those in crisis were not good enough. There was illicit drug and alcohol use, with one-in-seven inmates reporting that they developed a drug problem while imprisoned. Staff-prisoner relationships were poor and prisoners had little confidence in inexperienced staff members who, for instance, failed to tackle “delinquency and abusive behaviour.” The provision of healthcare was very poor and the care needs of some prisoners with disabilities were not met. Over a third of prisoners were locked up during the working day and education was poor with facilities under used. Resettlement and offender management was uncoordinated. The inspectors made 99 recommendations and concluded that, rather than representing the future direction for prisons, a retrieval plan was urgently needed. A new 2,000 place super-prison in Wrexham is planned for 2017.
Download from:
link