Jail staff lacked compassion for prisoner who took his life, inquest finds

An inquest jury has said a prisoner who took his own life was not shown enough compassion by staff at the jail.

The jury at Suffolk coroner’s court found that David Smith, 38, killed himself at Highpoint prison in Newmarket, Suffolk, in May 2014. He was serving three and a half years for drug offences.

The jury heard that Smith was transferred from Chelmsford prison to Highpoint on 23 May 2014. On arrival, he asked to speak to a listener – prisoners trained by the Samaritans – but none were available.

He asked to call the Samaritans helpline, but the phone in the induction unit was missing. Smith attempted to hang himself that evening and died in hospital the following day. He had a history of depression and self-harm. His was the third of four self-inflicted deaths at Highpoint in 18 months.

The jury was told that staff failed to activate the prison’s emergency code system, which would have triggered an automatic call for an ambulance. The driver of the ambulance that eventually responded said it took him 12 minutes to reach the cell after he arrived at the prison. He said the prison officer who guided him “ambled along” in front of his vehicle.

The jury found Highpoint’s failings included: lack of compassion for prisoners, lack of training of officers, insufficient staff on duty, failure to check logbooks, failure to earlier open a suicide and self-harm procedure and then implement that procedure.

Smith’s parents, Julie and Tony, said their son should still be alive: “David was calling for help, but no one helped him. If they had done their jobs properly he would still be here today.”

Deborah Coles, director of Inquest, said the jury’s findings encapsulated the crisis within the prison system.

“HMP Highpoint is not learning from its own failures, or improving the care and support provided to prisoners. The failures identified by this inquest must be responded to by the prisons minister, Sam Gyimah,” she said.

Sara Lomri, of Bindmans solicitors, who represented the family, said this was the third of four linked inquests arising from the deaths of four young men at Highpoint.

“It is vital that lessons are learned by the management of the prison and steps taken to ensure that the failings identified, by this and the other three inquests, are comprehensively addressed to ensure further deaths are avoided,” she said.

A Prison Service spokesperson said: “Our sympathies are with David Smith’s family and friends. We have already taken action and accepted all the recommendations following the Prisons and Probation Ombudsman’s investigation. We will now carefully consider the inquest findings to help ensure such incidents are not repeated.

“Safety in prisons is fundamental to the proper functioning of our justice system and a vital part of our reform plans.”

• In the UK, the Samaritans can be contacted on 116 123. In the US, the National Suicide Prevention Hotline is 1-800-273-8255. In Australia, the crisis support service Lifeline is on 13 11 14. Hotlines in other countries can be found here.

Jail staff lacked compassion for prisoner who took his life, inquest finds

If I went back to jail, I would refuse to share a prison cell | Eric Allison

An acute shortage of secure psychological overall health beds signifies inmates are held in unsuitable prison segregation units. Photograph: Simon Value/Alamy

When I was performing time, I received on well with the vast vast majority of my fellow prisoners we had been all in the very same boat and there is power in unity. Even when forced to share a cell, I produced the best of sharing a room designed for a single with a stranger for up to 23 hours a day.

Nonetheless, in the unlikely event of my getting imprisoned yet again, I would refuse point blank to enter a shared cell.

Why? Statistically, it would be a lot more likely than not that the particular person I was being asked to share with, would have considerable mental overall health issues. In some situations, dangerously so.

In March 2000, at Feltham Younger Offenders Institution, 19-year-previous Zahid Mubarek, was murdered by his cellmate, who had a significant character disorder. Of the 18 resolved prison homicides because then, above half had been committed in shared cells, by individuals suffering serious mental well being troubles who need to not have been confined with anybody.

My thoughts has focused on this concern for the final 18 months, as I’ve been sitting on a commission set up to examine what has changed on psychological overall health in the criminal justice method (CJS) because the Bradley report five years in the past. Headed by labour peer, Keith Bradley, it found offenders with psychological wellness problems have been failed by policing, courts and prisons and manufactured 82 recommendations.

The overview of the progress made is yet again headed by Lord Bradley. It has heard proof from a wide selection of specialists doing work in the area, along with people who had been by way of the program, and made a new report. In a nutshell: there are distinct indications of improvement in some areas because 2009, with evidence of effective early interventions to prevent young children from coming into the CJS. 6 pilot programmes, aimed at diverting young people with behavioural problems away from the CJS, were efficiently completed in 2010/11 and a national working model is being embedded. There are, nevertheless, fears that the nationwide programme has an grownup bias and requirements a lot more people with an knowing of younger people’s requirements. And there is constantly the danger of funding cuts. But it is progress.

And some police forces, Leicestershire and the Met in certain, are showing important improvement in their dealing with of people with psychological overall health problems. Police minister Damian Green backed moves earlier this yr to place psychological wellness nurses in 50 police stations across the United kingdom, as portion of the liaison programme recommended by Bradley. The aim is to roll this out nationally, with the NHS taking above when contracts expire.

But in my region of knowledge, prisons, there is no such positivity. The psychological health situation in jails is worse than ever. Apart from the increase in prison murders and self-harm amid male prisoners, my intray bulges with horror stories. A snapshot: an inmate in Dovegate prison, in Staffordshire, was informed the only way to ensure being seen by a mental overall health nurse was to self-harm. So he did.

And in 2011, a prisoner in the shut supervision centre at Woodhill jail, in Buckinghamshire, sliced the two ears off in two separate incidents. The guy is nonetheless becoming held in a segregation unit, alternatively of a secure psychological wellness bed. There is an acute shortage of this kind of beds. Only three hospitals, Broadmoor, Rampton and Ashworth take higher-chance people from prison. Sufferers will not leave these locations in a hurry so dozens of prisoners with serious mental overall health difficulties are held rather in segregation units, treated as handle issues rather than the seriously sick people they are.

The prison services has to get individuals the courts send them, irrespective of their mental state. But this mistreatment of prisoners with psychological health difficulties must shame us all. Politicians and senior managers should admit the problem and deal with it.

If I went back to jail, I would refuse to share a prison cell | Eric Allison

NHS staff face the chance of going to jail if they mistreat sufferers

Ministers claim the adjust is necessary because even though existing laws apply to certain kinds of sick-remedy or wilful neglect, they do not cover all situations. Photograph: Dominic Lipinski/PA

NHS workers will face the risk of going to jail if they mistreat individuals right after ministers made the decision to ignore protests from doctors’ organisations and deliver in a new criminal offence of “wilful neglect”.

Deliberate or reckless behaviour in the direction of individuals will turn out to be punishable by up to 5 many years in prison and £5,000 fines below the government’s amendment to the criminal justice and courts bill.

It will introduce separate new offences outlawing “unwell-therapy or wilful neglect” by men and women supplying overall health or social care and also by organisations.

The personal offence is meant to punish anyone in the 1.35m-robust NHS workforce in England who has mistreated someone deliberately or with a “could not care less” frame of mind. Ministers say it is essential due to the fact while existing laws apply to specific types of ill-treatment or wilful neglect, this kind of as bodily violence, they do not cover all such conditions.

The move was suggested last 12 months by an advisory group, chaired by patient security specialist Don Berwick that was commissioned by the Division of Health right after Robert Francis QC’s landmark report into the Mid Staffordshire hospital care scandal.

The Department of Well being (DH) explained the modify would near a loophole whereby at current in law sick-treatment method or wilful neglect can only take place in certain settings, this kind of as in psychological overall health institutions in which the individual lacks mental capacity.

The planned new law is “developed to tackle totally unacceptable actions, not punish human error. This will make sure there is consistency and also sends a robust message that bad care will never be tolerated”, mentioned a DH spokesman.

“It is emphatically not about punishing healthcare workers who make honest problems. This is about ensuring there are robust sanctions for deliberate or reckless actions, or failures to act, ought to in no way be tolerated in any healthcare method”, he additional.

Berwick’s advisory group said the new law should be “an offence of last resort, employed only in the most excessive situations”, the DH additional. It has estimated that there could be up to 240 prosecutions a 12 months, of everybody from healthcare assistants to advisor surgeons, as a result.

The Health-related Defence Union and Health care Protection Society, which represent medical doctors accused of wrongdoing, explained the move would make physicians reluctant to speak openly and truthfully about mistakes and would not increase patient security.

Dr Nick Clements, the MPS’s head of health-related providers, said it was “incredibly disappointed and concerned. This criminal sanction will have a huge impact on the professional lives of physicians.” It was pointless due to the fact “the existing regulatory, disciplinary and criminal framework is currently efficient at censuring unprofessional behaviour.”

The Academy of Medical Royal Schools, which represents Britain’s 250,000 medical doctors, warned the DH for the duration of the public consultation on the new offence that it could make personnel less open and sincere when blunders happen and prompt some healthcare personnel to practice “defensive medicine” in case undertaking something unusual led to them facing prosecution.

NHS staff face the chance of going to jail if they mistreat sufferers