Sarah Campbell top left, Pauline Campbell top right, Pauline's Protest & Arrest bottom.The jury described as factors contributing to her death a lack of urgency in formulating care plans, a lack of communication between the healthcare professionals and disciplinary staff, and her ability to smuggle in drugs undetected.
It found that there was a lack of suitable accommodation for vulnerable prisoners and criticised inadequate staffing levels, particularly at weekends and evenings, and a failure at all levels to understand and follow self-harm procedures.
It also found a lack of attention to vital medical information and assessment by outside agencies and a lack of structure and training.
"Emphasis is placed on auditing rather than prisoner welfare," it concluded at the end of a two-week hearing at Warrington town hall.
It found "avoidable delays" between the detection of the overdose and Sarah's arrival at Wythenshawe hospital, Manchester, where she died.
The toxicologist Professor Alexander Forrest had told the inquest that Sarah's chance of survival would have been "considerably higher" had an ambulance been called sooner.
The Cheshire coroner, Nicholas Rheinberg, said he was writing to the director general of the Prison Service to suggest that reports of investigations into non-natural deaths in prison should be given to staff.
He will also suggest that the prison should publish its response and any action plan. Copies will be sent to the prisons minister, Paul Goggins.
Mr Rheinberg recommended "regular mandatory training in suicide and self-harm" for all prison staff, and proper staff training records, and ordered a "thematic review" of the use of segregation in women's prisons and an immediate review of all staff training in suicide and self-harm at Styal.
When she arrived at Styal in January 2003 Campbell asked to be sent to Butler House, a unit for vulnerable prisoners, but she was put in the segregation unit.
The inquest was told there was a delay in calling an ambulance after a breakdown in communication between senior officers, who wrongly presumed that one was on its way. A nurse said she was told "it was a nurse's job" to call for an ambulance.
Campbell was convicted with Kim Woolley of the manslaughter of Amrit Bhandari, 72, a retired civil servant they had hassled for money in Chester. He collapsed and died of a heart attack.
Campbell said she was afraid of reprisals by Woolley, who was also sent to Styal, because she had testified against her.
The inquest was told that a community psychiatric nurse in court had faxed Styal asking to open a self-harm document. The fax was not available to those involved in her medical care.
When Nurse Lydia Webb went to the segregation unit to give Campbell her medication, Campbell told her: "I've just taken 120 of those." Ms Webb told the inquest: "I looked in her eyes and they looked like she had taken something. They were dilated and she was vacant."
She ran to get a blood pressure monitor and when she returned Campbell complained she should not be in prison and would be writing to her solicitor and MP. Her pulse was racing and she had vomited.
Ms Webb said she asked an officer to call for an ambulance but was told it was a nurse's job. "There was a general mix-up about who should call the ambulance," she said.
"It is usually the nurse, but when you are dealing with something you can't go away and order an ambulance."
An error was also made on a card outside her cell. It said R53 (Rule 53: awaiting adjudication), which implied an offence against prison discipline.
But Campbell had not committed an offence. She was in the segregation unit at Styal Prison on Rule 45, because she had asked to go there for her own protection.
The suicide prevention co-ordinator told the inquest that some staff were "not interested" in suicide prevention training.
The prisons ombudsman, Stephen Shaw, brought in to investigate after a sixth woman died in Styal in August 2003, told the inquest he was deeply uncomfortable that women had been placed in the segregation unit at Styal if they were at risk of self-harm or suicide.
Deborah Coles, co-director of the campaigning group Inquest, said: "This verdict is a damning indictment of Styal prison's failure to protect the life of a vulnerable woman at risk of suicide and self-harm.
Pauline Campbell, who said her daughter had tried to hang herself seven times while on remand, said she was "deeply shocked" to learn that Sarah had been placed on the segregation block, where she was "effectively isolated and basic procedures were not followed."The Prison Service said lessons would be learned from Campbell's death and further improvements made at Styal
[?]By Helen Carter posted 27 January 05Related:England and WalesPut in the way of self-harm in a place intended to protect othersUK: Sarah Campbell, 18, spent the last hours of her life in the segregation unit of Styal prison, Cheshire. "The seg", as those places are referred to, used to be known as "the block", short for punishment block. [ Seg is a bullshit word for Punishment, Solitary Confinement, Torture, Mental Illness, Self-Harm, Human Rights Abuse and that is State Terror.]
Britain 'sliding into police state'The home secretary, Charles Clarke, is transforming Britain into a police state, one of the country's former leading anti-terrorist police chiefs [false flag police chiefs] said yesterday.
UK solitary confinementUK: Segregation units are prisons within prisons - the places where the most unchecked brutality is meted out to prisoners. In recent years conditions in high security segregation units have deteriorated, and the use of long-term segregation as a control mechanism has increased.
England tops the EU in imprisonmentEngland and Wales jail more offenders per capita than any other European, Union country, according to new figures.
AustraliaNSW Prisoners' linked to Osama Bin Laden: Ten NewsNSW prisoners held in a "box within a box" with "no fresh air or sunlight" at the countries terrorist jail (HRMU) or High Risk Management Unit at Goulburn Correctional Centre, (a super-max prison in NSW), are said to have followed Osama Bin Laden from their isolated cells.
Justice Denied In NSW Corrective ServicesThere used to be a (VJ) or Visiting Justice who would go into the prison and judge any claim or accusation that was made by any prisoner or prison guard. If it were found that a prisoner had offended then punishment was metered out.
A TOTAL ABUSE OF POWERWe the prisoners at the High Risk Management Unit at Goulburn Correctional Centre would like to ask you for help in receiving equal treatment and opportunities as other prisoners throughout the system. As we are told that we are not in a segregation unit but we are treated as though we are in one.
RIOT ACT READ AGAINST INSPECTION TEAMThe gates into the HRMU were blocked by over twenty five armed police. The Inspectors in charge, Greg Jago and Alan Whitten said access to the institution was being denied.
Rally for Inspection of Terror Unit, the HRMULetters from prisoners describe abuse which, is part of the system. Prisoners report that they are kept in isolation without cause, they are deprived of air to the point of near asphyxiation, they are kept in freezing temperatures, gassed with unknown substances, and deprived of natural light. There is medical evidence that they are self-harming due to the conditions.
Prisoner Abuse Not Just in Iraq"The basic message of the study is that prisons are, basically, destructive environments that have to be guarded against at all times," he (Craig Haney) said. Regular training and discipline could keep prisons from degenerating into pits of abuse, but the vigilance had to be constant, with outside monitoring as well.
Conditions in the HRMUJustice Action is trying to obtain documents on behalf of prisoners held in the Goulburn High Risk Management Unit (HRMU) from the Federal Attorney General's Department, Corrective Services Minister's Conference regarding the process described below, in which the Standard Guidelines for Corrections in Australia were adopted.
Message of Solidarity: GreensNo where is the problem more evident then in the High Risk Management Unit in Goulburn Jail. Like the "super-max" units in the United States the HRMU uses unsubstantiated claims of "risks" to justify what is often the unjustifiable - the segregation and isolation of human beings.
Doctor Ron Woodham I presume?"Corrections Health staff provide medical care. However, its staff's authority is essentially limited to making recommendations to corrective services on treatment. Corrective services staff can then decide what treatment can be given."
Carr's Castle the real story H.R.M.U.The High Risk Management Unit Goulburn Correctional Centre. A prisoner writes, " I was unsuccessful in my letters to Dr Matthews CEO of the Corrections Health Service on my problem regarding air - claustrophobic effect the cells have on me. Just recently the management decided my injuries are not seriously affecting me so no further discussions are necessary.
NSW Terrorist Minister leads the wayNew South Wales is hosting a two-day conference of state and territory prisons ministers on how to detain terrorists. John Hatzistergos and Bob Carr know all about it having the states most draconian terrorist unit already. The (HRMU) acronym Harm-U the High Risk Management Unit at Goulburn.
On the treatment of prisoners at the NSW HRMUPrisoners sister's letter from her brother: Following our phone conversation some weeks ago I would like to set out a few points on the treatment of prisoners in the High Risk Management Unit at Goulburn (Super Max) (Guantanamo Bay).
Review of Justice Ministers claims about conditions at HRMUThere is no fresh air in our cells only Air conditioning pumped out of an 8 x 8-centimetre vent over our beds. Conditions change with filthy moods of the prison guards. Induction clothing "one set" mostly shorts and a prisoner remains there for two weeks depending whatever suits the staff. If a prisoner shuts up about the abuse, and freezing conditions (Goulburn cold in winter hot in summer taking into account you're housed in concrete) then you may go to units 8 or 9.
Watchdogs slaughtered in NSWOn Tuesday the Carr Government reduced transparency and accountability yet again and New South Wales is in danger of becoming entrenched with cronyism and intimidations with the Carr Labor Government that continues to slaughter the watchdogs.
The ruling class, capitalism and de-valuing the scholarAn example is the High Risk Management Unit at Goulburn Correctional Centre. " a box within a box" with no sunlight or fresh air. With no constructive education, hobbies or work for the prisoners. Extensive lock-downs and security rule the HRMU. Visitors have to pass a security test to gain access. Prisoners are chained and cuffed in leg-irons if they are to be moved. Prisoners are moved into a different cell every 14 days and the guards move their personal belongings.
Escape proof but not so the prisoners mindFewer prisoners escape from prison these days because they're "cemented in" by materials that do not break and by legislation that can keep prisoners in jail until they die.
PRISON CORRUPTION AT THE HRMUJust lies! Powerful prisoners don't exist at the HRMU because of the security of the prison. So even when prisoners are dumped inside a concrete box that is inside a concrete box with no fresh air, no sunlight and no constructive work they are powerful? What about powerless. These prisoners are moved from their cells to another cell every 14 days and constrained with leg irons and cuffs, how are they powerful? Please explain!
Noble Cause CorruptionI am writing to you as I have been in segregation for a couple of weeks. I have had my "C1" minimum-security classification taken off me and replaced with an "A2" special management at Goulburn jail. I most definitely have not done anything to warrant such punishment.
PRISONERS OFFER OF RECONCILIATIONPremier Bob Carr, Deputy Premier Andrew Refshauge, Senator Aden Ridgeway,and other community representatives have been invited to receive the message from the men of "The Hole.
High Risk Management Unit (HRMU) INSPECTIONThis letter is to request permission for an independent inspection team to examine the 75-cell HRMU at Goulburn Jail. The proposed inspection team consists of specialist doctors, jurists, members of the Corrections Health Service Consumer Council and prisoners representatives.
Stopping ViolenceWe had a TV program in NZ some time ago where a guy pointed out that it doesn't matter how long the sentence is sooner or later they will have finished their sentence and go back into society and therefore live next door to someone!
Abuse within prisons makes prisoners more violent upon releaseThe Australian public was confronted with similar accusations during 1978 when the NSW Royal Commission into Prisons headed by Justice Nagle found that the NSW Department of Corrective Services and its Ministers of both political persuasions had unofficially sanctioned the systematic brutalisation of prisoners at Grafton Jail from 1943 to 1976. A former Grafton prison guard, John Pettit, testified to the extent of that brutalisation:
Our very own AlcatrazI heard voices from the Gatehouse. The clicking of handcuff ratchets. The noise heralded the arrival of the transfer escort. I looked around my cell for the last time my home since the summer of '71, when I was transferred to Grafton as an intractable prisoner.
IntractablesAs an ex-Grafton intractable (1971-1975) and the only living ex-prisoner to have served the longest time inside Katingal (1975-1978) I feel qualified to offer the following personal observations:
Brett Collins: Speech to Nagle Symposium 25 years onI was serving 17 years, was in segregation and had served five of the almost ten I eventually did. The prison movement outside had made the Royal Commission aware of the plight I was in as one of the prisoner organisers. That attention meant I was safer from that time on. Although two years later I was returned to Grafton with the classification of intractable.
Midnight SpecialIf you ever go to Goulburn HRMU yeah, you better walk right You'd better not breathe and sure thing better not fight.
Isolation, psychiatric treatment and prisoner' controlThe 2003 NSW Corrections Health Service (now Justice Health) Report on Mental Illness Among NSW Prisoners states that the 12 month prevalence of any psychiatric disorder in prison is 74%, compared to 22% in the general community, and while this includes substance disorder the high rate cannot be attributed to that alone.
Where the Norm is Not the Norm: HARM-UIn the absence of public policy, this paper is an attempt to shine a light through the rhetoric and test for coherency in the policy and function of NSW’s only supermax prison, the High Risk Management Unit. Its present use will be compared with the ‘vision’ flogged by the Premier and the Department of Corrective Services (the Department) at its inception in 2001.
Crime and PunishmentMark Findlay argues that the present psychological approach to prison programs is increasing the likelihood of re-offending and the threat to community safety.
USAA Death in the BoxBy the time Jessica Lee Roger was discovered on the floor of her prison cell on Aug. 17, 2002, it was too late. In the 24 minutes since guards had last checked her, she had tied a bed sheet around her neck and, after many attempts over three years in prison, finally strangled herself.
Prison System Fails Women, Study Says
State policies designed for violent men make female offenders' rehabilitation difficult, an oversight panel finds. "If we fail to intervene effectively in the lives of these women and their children now, California will pay the cost for generations to come," said Commissioner Teddie Ray, chairwoman of the subcommittee that produced the report.
Child Offenders on Death Row
Recent Australian studies of alcohol and cannabis use show that girls are increasingly inclined to behave boldly. But boys out number the girls, two to one; and three to one in the juvenile justice system, mortality figures, speeding infringements and car crash statistics.
