Decade after inspector left in disgust, report tells of filth

UK: Dirty, mice-infested cells, high levels of self-harm, and widespread bullying over drugs and medications were just some of the damning findings of a report into conditions at Holloway, Britain's largest women's prison.

Nearly a decade after her predecessor, Sir David Ramsbotham, walked out of the jail in disgust over conditions, the chief inspector of prisons, Anne Owers, found that many of the north London jail's "fundamental problems" remained.

In particular, Ms Owers said that four out of seven key recommendations made by an inspection team nearly three years ago had still not been met. She also criticised the jail for failing to meet a principal recommendation from 2002 that girls should no longer be kept at Holloway.

However, she praised the prison's management team for making significant improvements since her last inspection, to Holloway's healthcare system and the amount of time inmates were spending out of their cells.

Designed in the 19th century as a mixed prison, Holloway has been plagued with problems ever since the 1970s when it began admitting increasing numbers of women.

In 1995 Sir David called for "immediate improvements" when he pulled out of an inspection after seeing rats, ants and cockroaches, and finding heavy-handed security, bullying, inadequate education facilities,low staff morale and poor healthcare.

In recent years, prison reformers have expressed concerns about levels of drug abuse, self-harm and suicide. And last year, Inquest, an organisation that works with families of those who have died in custody, reported that Holloway officers were cutting down as many as five women a day from nooses.

In her 2002 report, Ms Owers said it was "inexcusable and depressing" that young girls were being held on wings alongside older women inmates.

In her new report Ms Owers found the practice continued.

She also found "unacceptable" standards of cleanliness and parts of the jail with serious infestations of mice, pigeons and insects.

Inmates were forced to use sanitary towels as improvised seats on filthy toilets and to plug gaps under doors in an attempt to keep out rodents.

"Holloway has undoubtedly progressed since the last inspection but not to the extent that managers had hoped and we had expected," said Ms Owers.

"The previous management team have tackled some of the acute problems with enthusiasm but aspects of the underlying culture remained unaddressed."

The chief inspector also revealed that none of the staff working with children and young adults had received enhanced checks from the Criminal Records Bureau and highlighted the "extremely unsafe practice" of locking young women in bathrooms while showering.

"While the intention was clearly to keep others out, the reality was that juveniles and young adults were locked in showers in groups of three without prior risk assessments and without constant staff supervision," said the report.

Yesterday Tony Hassall, the governor of Holloway, said this practice had now been discontinued. He also said he planned to transfer the last juvenile to more suitable accommodation this week.

According to the chief inspector's report, half the inmates of Holloway felt "noticeably less safe" than in other women's prisons and staff are having to manage a "very high level of distress".

Minority ethnic and foreign national prisoners were particularly vulnerable, said Ms Owers.

Although Ms Owers recognised that pressures on staff and management should ease following the opening last year of HMP Bronzefield, a new women's prison in Ashford, Middlesex, she recommended that Holloway should rework its anti-bullying strategy, comprehensively review its procedures for managing women at risk of self-harm and suicide and ensure that under-18s were no longer held.

Welcoming the chief inspector's findings, Phil Wheatley, the director of prisons, pointed out that Holloway had just opened a new mother and baby unit and a refurbished healthcare centre was due to be completed in April.

"The governor and senior management team are determined to maintain the impetus for change," he said.

However, Mark Leech, editor of the Prisons Handbook, said it was high time that Holloway was demolished.

"This prison has had more than enough 'final chances' and if nobody can improve it, I believe it is time to make a radical decision about its future."

By Mark Honigsbaum posted 31 March 05

End of years of despair as Holloway closes its doors

But now Holloway prison in north London - where Ruth Ellis, the last woman to be executed in Britain, was hanged in 1955 - has been earmarked for closure, along with several other women's prisons, which have been hit by a spate of suicides.

Related:

Most women 'should not be jailed'
Women make up 6% of the prison population in England and Wales. Imprisonment of women should be "virtually abolished", a prison reform group has said. The Howard League for Penal Reform said jail should be reserved for women who commit serious or violent offences and remain a danger to the public.

Youth 'murdered for officers' pleasure'
UK: An Asian teenager was murdered by a white racist after they were placed in the same cell as part of a game to fulfil the "perverted pleasure" of prison officers, a public inquiry heard on Friday.

Inquest blames jail for overdose death
UK: An inquest jury returned a verdict itemising a catalogue of faults at Styal prison in Cheshire, concluding that the prison's "failure of duty of care" contributed to the death of Sarah Campbell, 18, who took an overdose of tablets on the first day of her three-year sentence.

Put in the way of self-harm in a place intended to protect others
UK: 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 confinement
UK: 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.

Inquiry must root out prison racists
UK: It is difficult to imagine a more brutal murder than that of Zahid Mubarek. The 19-year-old was clubbed to death by his cellmate at Feltham Young Offender Institution in the early hours of 21 March 2000. He was due to be released just a few hours later.

Prison suicides soar as jails hire 'babysitters'
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Plan to sell off juvenile jails as job lot
UK: The government is to put out to tender all its dedicated juvenile jails that hold children under 18 in a departure in Whitehall's privatisation programme.

Failure to sack 'racist' prison staff condemned
UK: Two prison officers suspended for racism are still on full pay three years after a stash of Nazi memorabilia, neo-fascist literature and Ku Klux Klan-inspired 'nigger-hunting licences' was found in a police raid on their home.

Report slams 'unjust' jailing of women on remand
UK: Six out of 10 women sent to jail while they await trial are acquitted or given a non-custodial sentence, a report published today reveals. Introducing the report, Lady Kennedy QC calls for a complete review of the use of remand and bail for women saying it is "inhumane and unjust".

Concern as UK prison suicides hit record level
UK: More prisoners took their own lives in English jails in August than in any other month since records began, prison reformers said today.

End of years of despair as Holloway closes its doors
But now Holloway prison in north London - where Ruth Ellis, the last woman to be executed in Britain, was hanged in 1955 - has been earmarked for closure, along with several other women's prisons, which have been hit by a spate of suicides.

How detox and self-help brought suicide jail back from the brink
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Belmarsh detainees consider suicide, says freed man
UK: The first of the Muslim detainees released from Belmarsh high security prison after being held on suspicion of terrorism has told the Guardian his fellow prisoners are suffering such severe mental problems that they constantly consider suicide.

Suicides and unrest have soared, admits Home Office
UK:The already overcrowded prison population is set to go on rising and will top 80,000 within the next three years, a senior Home Office civil servant warned yesterday.

England tops the EU in imprisonment
England and Wales jail more offenders per capita than any other European, Union country, according to new figures.

Failure to sack 'racist' prison staff condemned

UK: Two prison officers suspended for racism are still on full pay three years after a stash of Nazi memorabilia, neo-fascist literature and Ku Klux Klan-inspired 'nigger-hunting licences' was found in a police raid on their home.

The delay in sacking married couple Simon Thistlethwaite and Lorraine Hollick from the Prison Service was condemned by opposition MPs and the Government's anti-racist watchdog, the Commission for Racial Equality.

The couple were suspended in July 2001 for allegedly intimidating black staff. Their prison quarters backing on to Holloway jail in north London were raided by police who found one room decorated as Hitler's bunker.

The case will cause deep embarrassment for the Home Secretary David Blunkett and his head of correctional services, Martin Narey, who have pledged a zero tolerance policy on racism in Britain's jails.

Senior officials within the Prison Officers Association are known to be deeply uncomfortable about defending Thistlethwaite, who worked at Pentonville jail in north London, and Hollick, a Holloway officer, who face a disciplinary tribunal this year.

Documents show that, in June, prison service staff were making preparations for the couple to return to work, even though Hollick refused to work with black staff.

Notes of a meeting held on 1 June 2004 taken by Prison Service official Steve Hynd and show that the authorities at Pentonville were discussing 'possible career options' with the two officers after the police dropped the criminal case against them. Thistlethwaite and Hollick made it clear that they wanted to retire on medical grounds, but this was not the only course of action open to them.

The notes state: 'Lorraine indicated a lack of trust due to the pressures brought about by all what (sic) has happened. Feels ill at ease and could not work with a black officer.' Despite this overt racism, one of the options discussed by prison staff was a 'return to work plan'.

Hynd indicated that his 'desire was to get both Lorraine and Simon back to full duties if that was practical'. He also confirmed that the area manager was 'content' for Hollick to be offered a post at Pentonville.

In July this year the Home Office ordered an inquiry into the couple, which belatedly concluded that the officers were racist and that it was 'not acceptable for a Prison Officer to keep such items on display in their property'.

The inquiry, carried out by senior investigating officer Ted Butt, recommended that both officers should be charged with serious unprofessional conduct for bringing discredit on the Prison Service.

Butt's report was the result of interviews with Thistlethwaite and Hollick, during which they admitted they owned the racist material, although they continued to deny they were racist.

In his conclusion, Butt wrote: 'There is no doubt at all, that a room (toilet), was used as a room to display German and SS material. It was known by the occupants as "Adolf's Bunker Room".'

During the interview, Thistlethwaite also admitted to being the owner of the 'nigger hunting licences' found by the police, an extreme right-wing magazine called Strike Force and a record by the neo-Nazi band Skrewdriver.

The Commission for Racial Equality has pledged to raise the case at a meeting with the director of the Prison Service, Phil Wheatley.

Prisons Ombudsman is investigating further allegations of racism at Holloway.

Colin Moses, the first black chairman of the Prison Officers Association, said the delay in dealing with Thistlethwaite and Hollick was a disgrace. 'The prison service must now make a point of turning paper policies into real policies,' he said. The Prison Service said it remained committed to rooting out racists among prison officers and had dismissed 15 members of staff since 2001. A spokeswoman said attempts to deal with the case had been hampered by the time taken by the police to decide to drop the criminal case.

By Martin Bright posted 29 September 04

Related:

Report slams 'unjust' jailing of women on remand
UK: Six out of 10 women sent to jail while they await trial are acquitted or given a non-custodial sentence, a report published today reveals. Introducing the report, Lady Kennedy QC calls for a complete review of the use of remand and bail for women saying it is "inhumane and unjust".

Concern as UK prison suicides hit record level
UK: More prisoners took their own lives in English jails in August than in any other month since records began, prison reformers said today.

A life inside: Erwin James
This is my last prison column. After 20 years, I'm free. I just didn't expect it to happen with so little ceremony.

End of years of despair as Holloway closes its doors
UK: It has housed some of Britain's most notorious women prisoners, including Moors murderer Myra Hindley, serial killer Rose West, Diana Mosley, aristocratic wife of fascist leader Oswald Mosley and, most recently, Maxine Carr, girlfriend of Soham murderer Ian Huntley.

UK Miscarriages: Loss of innocence
Can anyone comprehend what it is like to spend years in prison for a crime you didn't commit? Eric Allison tracked down those still haunted by the experience - the victims of miscarriages of justice, and their families.

Prison service 'on brink of a race crisis'
Britain's jails are plagued by a culture of racism among a hard core of officers and have been rocked by allegations that black prisoners have been made to fight white inmates, [prisoners], for the amusement of warders, according to the union chief in charge of 33,500 officers.

How detox and self-help brought suicide jail back from the brink
UK: Six suicides in 12 months made Styal prison notorious and the Prisons Ombudsman criticised the prison and its staff for serious failures. But things are changing.

Restorative Justice Practices
Restorative Justice Practices of Native American, First Nation and Other Indigenous People of North America: Part One BY LAURA MIRSKY.This is part one in a series of articles about restorative justice practices of Native American, First Nation and other indigenous people of North America.

UK: The injustice of jail
UK: Give or take Alcatraz, few prisons have a grimmer reputation than Holloway. The former chief inspector, David Ramsbotham, once declared it too disgusting to assess. Others have called the jail's cockroach-infested blocks the worst in the country. Holloway, its image pitched somewhere between Dante's Inferno and the penitentiary wing of Fawlty Towers, has never seemed a candidate for a good slammer award.

Belmarsh prisoners consider suicide, says freed man
UK: The first of the Muslim prisoners released from Belmarsh high security prison after being held on suspicion of terrorism, [scapegoats for the Coalition of the Killing's resource war's in the Middle East], has [said], his fellow prisoners are suffering such 'severe mental problems' that they constantly consider suicide.

Revolving door: Criminal Law System
UK: They are just the opposite of master criminals. Indeed, in the words of Nick Davies in his latest three-part Guardian series on the criminal justice system, [? criminal law system], their criminal careers reflect "the same muddled inadequacy as they handle the rest of their lives". They were nearly all born and raised in chaos.

How the Prison Service Works
1.Abuse and torture inmates at HMP Wormwood Scrubs
2.Take years to admit a regime of violence and torture.
3.Settle 46 claims, paying 1.7 million to prisoners.
5.Carry on as before.
4.Keep 11 of the 14 prison officers responsible in their jobs.

Prisoners must get right to vote, says court
UK: The government will be forced to lift a ban on prisoners voting dating back to 1870 after the European court of human rights ruled yesterday it breached a lifer's human rights.

Cherie calls for women to be kept out of jail
UK: Cherie Booth today launches an impassioned attack on the jailing of women, warning of a 'cycle of poverty and crime' spiralling down the generations unless more female criminals are spared prison.

Blunkett charges miscarriage of justice victims 'food and lodgings'
UK: WHAT do you give someone who's been proved innocent after spending the best part of their life behind bars, wrongfully convicted of a crime they didn't commit? An apology, maybe? Counselling? Champagne?Compensation?

Prison needle cleansing programme
The Department of Health and the Prison Service appeared to be at odds last night over a needle cleansing programme designed to protect prisoners from blood-borne infections such as HIV and hepatitis.

England tops the EU in imprisonment
England and Wales jail more offenders per capita than any other European, Union country, according to new figures. The imprisonment rate of 141 per 100,000 makes the countries the prison capital of Europe for the second year running.

Don't put mothers behind bars
If we are to arrest the soaring prison suicide rate among women, we need to look at alternative punishment.

UK Prison Abuse: Guards Holding Nooses
'We will kill you. We will get away with it... we've done it before' Prisoners tell of hanging threats by officers holding nooses.

K K K in the UK
In the documentary it is alleged an officer dressed in a Ku Klux Klan mask at a training centre in north-west England. An undercover reporter from the BBC also claimed to have taped racist comments by some officers.

Suicides and unrest have soared, admits Home Office
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My Sarah was smart and talented - Why did she die in jail?
LONDON: Sarah Campbell was just 18 when she killed herself [? committed suicide,] one of seven women to die in jail this year. Our correspondent asks why so many women kill themselves in prison [? commit suicide in prison.]

End of years of despair as Holloway closes its doors

[Allegedly], infamous women's jail set for the axe in radical penal policy shift.

UK: It has housed some of Britain's most notorious women prisoners, including Moors murderer Myra Hindley, serial killer Rose West, Diana Mosley, aristocratic wife of fascist leader Oswald Mosley and, most recently, Maxine Carr, girlfriend of Soham murderer Ian Huntley.

[Great way for the ruling class Observer Newpaper to start an article on prisons and punishment for women? Why not start with serial killer, the Observer Newspaper? So they are so notorious you sell more papers? Just sensational crap.]

But now Holloway prison in north London - where Ruth Ellis, the last woman to be executed in Britain, was hanged in 1955 - [Sensational, why don't they hang the Observer Newspaper?], has been earmarked for closure, along with several other women's prisons, which have been hit by a spate of suicides. [?]

[Women killing themselves because of 'prison conditions' how gross is that? Worst than murder that is 'mass murder' by the ruling class and exploited by the Observer Newspaper.]

Martin Narey, the Home Office's head of correctional services, aims to move all women out of prisons such as Holloway and into new purpose-built jails that will deal with high levels of drug dependency and mental illness. More than two-thirds of women who arrive in prison need detox treatment for alcohol or drug addiction.

[So that statement makes it 'sound like' the women have the problems of committing suicide and it's not the prisons fault? And the suicides are not based on the hell hole what they are sent to?]

The closure would mark the end of an institution that has long attracted the concerns of both penal reformers and the government. In 1996 conditions at the prison prompted the then chief inspector of prisons, Sir David Ramsbotham, to walk out in disgust on his first visit.

Although the prison took steps to improve, further inquiries revealed that Holloway still fell short of standards. Last year the Prison Inspectorate raised concerns about the conditions for teenage girls and the regime was described as grossly inadequate, with little awareness of child protection procedures.

The first signs of, [the alleged], radical shift in British penal policy have already begun with the closure of the notorious women's wing at Durham prison, which has housed some of the most dangerous female prisoners.

[There we go again the women were so dangerous, what does that mean? It doesn't matter if they were screwed over by the system?]

The women will be moved to two new purpose-built private women's prisons, HMP Bronzefield at Ashford in Middlesex and Peterborough, which will house more than 800 inmates, [prisoners.]

A massive rise in the male population has already led to the closure of the female wing at HMP Winchester and Edmunds Hill, a women's prison in Suffolk will start to convert to a male prison next month. Other women's prisons targeted for closure are Brockhill in the West Midlands and Styal near Manchester, which have both had serious problems with suicide and self-harm among inmates, [prisoners. Not self-harm, but bad conditions harm!]

No timescale has been put on the closure plans because, at present, both men and women's prisons are near full capacity. But Narey believes the courts can be persuaded to jail fewer women.

He will come under fire from penal reformers, who argue that women prisoners need small residential secure units near to the homes to avoid disrupting their families. The Observer understands that Narey has categorically ruled out this option as too expensive.

Juliet Lyon, director of the Prison Reform Trust, said Narey's plans 'would simply replace one kind of warehouse with another' and that women would still be sent to prisons hundreds of miles from their homes.

'Rather than large private purpose-built jails miles from their homes and the support they need, most women who offend need drug treatment, mental health care, parenting support and legitimate ways to get out of debt,' she said.

She added that the Home Office was committed to finding imaginative alternatives to prison for women and the private building programme did not provide this.

There are around 4,500 women in Britain's prisons, a figure that has almost trebled in a decade. But the Home Office 'believes', [what does that mean?] that new sentencing guidelines and an emphasis on community sentences will persuade magistrates and juries to send fewer women to jail.

[Regadless of what the ruling class alleged, home office believes, that is just plain rubbish and propaganda, to those being 'murdered' by poor condiitons. Who would believe the home office of well to do ruling class gits anyway? The alleged, Observer!]

More female inmates, [prisoners for fuck sake], have been convicted of shoplifting than any other crime. [Stealing from rich gits.] Two-thirds of women enter prison on remand.

Home Office figures show that 40 per cent of those who are sentenced serve three months or less. Bronzefield, which is run by the private contractor UK Detention Services, opened last month. It is the first purpose-built women's prison in Britain since the Victorian Holloway was completely rebuilt in the 1970s. Built as series of low-rise house blocks, it is designed to be less intimidating, [?], than a men's jail. Peterborough, also run by UKDS, will open next year.

By Martin Bright, [MI5,6?] posted 26 July 04

My Sarah was smart and talented - Why did she die in jail?

LONDON: Sarah Campbell was just 18 when she killed herself [? committed suicide,] one of seven women to die in jail this year. Our correspondent asks why so many women kill themselves in prison [? commit suicide in prison.]

Related:

UK Miscarriages: Loss of innocence
Can anyone comprehend what it is like to spend years in prison for a crime you didn't commit? Eric Allison tracked down those still haunted by the experience - the victims of miscarriages of justice, and their families.

Prison service 'on brink of a race crisis'
Britain's jails are plagued by a culture of racism among a hard core of officers and have been rocked by allegations that black prisoners have been made to fight white inmates, [prisoners], for the amusement of warders, according to the union chief in charge of 33,500 officers.

How detox and self-help brought suicide jail back from the brink
UK: Six suicides in 12 months made Styal prison notorious and the Prisons Ombudsman criticised the prison and its staff for serious failures. But things are changing.

Restorative Justice Practices
Restorative Justice Practices of Native American, First Nation and Other Indigenous People of North America: Part One BY LAURA MIRSKY.This is part one in a series of articles about restorative justice practices of Native American, First Nation and other indigenous people of North America.

UK: The injustice of jail
UK: Give or take Alcatraz, few prisons have a grimmer reputation than Holloway. The former chief inspector, David Ramsbotham, once declared it too disgusting to assess. Others have called the jail's cockroach-infested blocks the worst in the country. Holloway, its image pitched somewhere between Dante's Inferno and the penitentiary wing of Fawlty Towers, has never seemed a candidate for a good slammer award.

Belmarsh prisoners consider suicide, says freed man
UK: The first of the Muslim prisoners released from Belmarsh high security prison after being held on suspicion of terrorism, [scapegoats for the Coalition of the Killing's resource war's in the Middle East], has [said], his fellow prisoners are suffering such 'severe mental problems' that they constantly consider suicide.

Revolving door: Criminal Law System
UK: They are just the opposite of master criminals. Indeed, in the words of Nick Davies in his latest three-part Guardian series on the criminal justice system, [? criminal law system], their criminal careers reflect "the same muddled inadequacy as they handle the rest of their lives". They were nearly all born and raised in chaos.

How the Prison Service Works
1.Abuse and torture inmates at HMP Wormwood Scrubs
2.Take years to admit a regime of violence and torture.
3.Settle 46 claims, paying 1.7 million to prisoners.
5.Carry on as before.
4.Keep 11 of the 14 prison officers responsible in their jobs.

Prisoners must get right to vote, says court
UK: The government will be forced to lift a ban on prisoners voting dating back to 1870 after the European court of human rights ruled yesterday it breached a lifer's human rights.

Cherie calls for women to be kept out of jail
UK: Cherie Booth today launches an impassioned attack on the jailing of women, warning of a 'cycle of poverty and crime' spiralling down the generations unless more female criminals are spared prison.

Blunkett charges miscarriage of justice victims 'food and lodgings'
UK: WHAT do you give someone who's been proved innocent after spending the best part of their life behind bars, wrongfully convicted of a crime they didn't commit? An apology, maybe? Counselling? Champagne?Compensation?

Prison needle cleansing programme
The Department of Health and the Prison Service appeared to be at odds last night over a needle cleansing programme designed to protect prisoners from blood-borne infections such as HIV and hepatitis.

England tops the EU in imprisonment
England and Wales jail more offenders per capita than any other European, Union country, according to new figures. The imprisonment rate of 141 per 100,000 makes the countries the prison capital of Europe for the second year running.

Don't put mothers behind bars
If we are to arrest the soaring prison suicide rate among women, we need to look at alternative punishment.

UK Prison Abuse: Guards Holding Nooses
'We will kill you. We will get away with it... we've done it before' Prisoners tell of hanging threats by officers holding nooses.

K K K in the UK
In the documentary it is alleged an officer dressed in a Ku Klux Klan mask at a training centre in north-west England. An undercover reporter from the BBC also claimed to have taped racist comments by some officers.

Suicides and unrest have soared, admits Home Office
UK:The already overcrowded prison population is set to go on rising and will top 80,000 within the next three years, a senior Home Office civil servant warned yesterday.

My Sarah was smart and talented - Why did she die in jail?
LONDON: Sarah Campbell was just 18 when she killed herself [? committed suicide,] one of seven women to die in jail this year. Our correspondent asks why so many women kill themselves in prison [? commit suicide in prison.]

UK: The injustice of jail

The genuine improvements to Holloway cannot disguise the iniquity of imprisoning too many women

UK: Give or take Alcatraz, few prisons have a grimmer reputation than Holloway. The former chief inspector, David Ramsbotham, once declared it too disgusting to assess. Others have called the jail's cockroach-infested blocks the worst in the country. Holloway, its image pitched somewhere between Dante's Inferno and the penitentiary wing of Fawlty Towers, has never seemed a candidate for a good slammer award.

So how curious to get an invitation from the Home Secretary to join him on the first visit he has ever made to a women's prison. Clearly David Blunkett thinks things are looking up, otherwise he wouldn't want me along. Even so, the omens are not good. Shortly after 9am on the previous Thursday, Julie Angela Hope, aged 35 and on remand awaiting sentence, was found hanging from a bedsheet in her cell. Ms Hope died three days later in hospital, with her mother and her sister at her side.

She had stolen a handbag, which seems a meagre reason to end a life. But obviously it wasn't all about the bag. [? rubbish.] Ms Hope had one of those chaotic existences that channel the least fortunate from court to prison to morgue. [Rubbish, she stole a bag. Then she was shoved in a hell-hole by the ruling class.]

On the weekend of her death, three women killed themselves in other jails. As Edd Willetts, Holloway's new, impressive governor, told me, it is a 'miracle' that more do not perish. His staff cut down three or four women from makeshift nooses every day.

Anyway, here we are inside a functional, [?] north London building which looks hardly more of a mausoleum than the Home Secretary's everyday habitat of Queen Anne's Gate. The number of women prisoners has risen by 194 per cent over the last decade, and these ones could be hostile to their visitor. Instead, they are kind, mostly articulate and courteous. Only one woman initially refuses to speak to Blunkett, and she recants, saying: 'Oh, you're that famous geezer.' Most people make a big fuss of his dog, while the Home Secretary assures those awaiting trial that he is keen to speed the process up. He also tries some amiable hectoring.

'I've been in here for four years, on and off,' a young woman in the block for vulnerable prisoners tells him. 'Well, could you make it "off"?' he says. As Blunkett cannot see, her forearms are latticed with the slashes of self-harm. [?] Out of 470 prisoners here, 55 will try to injure themselves today.

Still, some things are changing. The health centre looks like the set for a general practice sitcom. Women can have a shower every day, which everyone seems to think amazing. An art class is in progress. The Job Centre Plus office is open. Officers sound, in a way that is not contrived for a Minister's visit, as if they care. 'Decency' is a favoured buzzword. In an induction group learning about rules for visits, most women wear grey tracksuits and smart trainers on loan from the prison. Many will have swayed in on the previous day, bone weary in high heels. Seven out of 10 will need a detox. Many will be mentally ill and require urgent medical assessment after the vans pull up just before midnight. The drivers, knowing that Holloway won't refuse late arrivals, always deliver male prisoners first.

If these women are typical, more than a third will have attempted suicide at some point in their lives and half will be on medication for depression. Each will, on average, have 2.1 children. The floating population of the biggest women's jail in western Europe never stays long. Newcomers, flotsam from 200 courts, are mostly remand prisoners. On national statistics, eight out of 10 will be charged with non-violent offences, and 60 per cent will be acquitted or get non-custodial sentences. The cost of keeping each woman here is more than £40,000 a year.

But Blunkett has come to reveal good news: £16 million of new money will be spent on building specialist units for girls under 18. Within 12 months, the children housed at Holloway will be moving on. Today, there are 11 of them on remand, all aged 17. Some are aghast to find a Minister in their midst. 'My hair,' one cries. 'It looks a mess.'

The Home Secretary and I stand in a cell with face cream, tomato ketchup and plastic cutlery on a shelf, next to a cushion embroidered with a heart and a boyfriend's name. The occupant, like many others, has kept a palm cross left over from Holy Week. 'We give the girls special bedding,' the deputy governor says, twitching a valance. 'Lemon yellow. With frills.'

But these girls should not be in prison at all, say reformers. Not here, and not in the new child jails swallowing up money needed elsewhere. Blunkett disagrees. Still, he has learned a lot, he tells me before he leaves. There must be better detox programmes outside prison. Mental health must be a priority. [Death from stealing a bag must stop?] I carry on to the refurbished mother and baby unit with its terrace planted with polyanthus, its cr?che full of toys, 'chill-out room' and unlocked cells. This relative idyll ends when the babies reach nine months, the age at which they are farmed out to relatives or local authority care. Many will never be reunited with their mothers.

Rachel has one month left before her daughter is taken away. Rachel is 20, a bright, compliant, hard-working and popular girl, but her crime was serious. [?] She is serving 10 years for importing a Class A drug, an offence she is too upset to talk about. [Serious? Rubbish, prohibition was planned and orchestrated by the ruling class. To be sepparated from your children and visa versa for the ruling class?] Her son, now aged two, and her daughter - two of the 17,000 children separated from their mothers by jail each year - will be looked after by her partner and his cousin. 'I know my baby will be cared for well,' Rachel says, but she seems close to tears.

In Germany, the state provides special units for non-dangerous women prisoners and their young children, an idea that the Prison Reform Trust will explore next month in a conference on young mothers. Here, we build child jails and imprison a record 4,671 women, even though crime has not got worse. Many of Holloway's inhabitants are suspected shoplifters.

I imagine the governor told Blunkett in private what he told me in public. 'A lot of women are remanded because they need psychiatric assessment. Why does that have to take place in prison? If we had better provision for the drug-addicted and mentally ill, we could significantly reduce the numbers of women in custody.'

Governor Willetts also says the lack of community support means that prison detoxes are doomed to fail. 'There is a better than even chance that when we discharge someone, their first port of call will be King's Cross and another supply of illegal drugs. [Then legalise drugs like big pharma.] 'Blunkett wanted to show that Holloway is very much improved. He's right. [Rubbish love! Just plain propaganda and rubbish]. But the real message was the failure of a justice system, [more rubbish, try the 'Law System' because what you have described above is certainly not justice, love.] that jails women who should never be in prison, a system that makes sad lives tragic.

The Home Secretary has witnessed what people have been telling him for years. I hope he was appalled.

[Wishful thinking but just like most of the ruling class he probably doesn't see himself as equal.]

By Mary Riddell posted April 29, 2004

My Sarah was smart and talented - Why did she die in jail?

LONDON: Sarah Campbell was just 18 when she killed herself [? committed suicide,] one of seven women to die in jail this year. Our correspondent asks why so many women kill themselves in prison [? commit suicide in prison.]

Related:

Belmarsh prisoners consider suicide, says freed man
UK: The first of the Muslim prisoners released from Belmarsh high security prison after being held on suspicion of terrorism, [scapegoats for the Coalition of the Killing's resource war's in the Middle East], has [said], his fellow prisoners are suffering such 'severe mental problems' that they constantly consider suicide.

Revolving door: Criminal Law System
UK: They are just the opposite of master criminals. Indeed, in the words of Nick Davies in his latest three-part Guardian series on the criminal justice system, [? criminal law system], their criminal careers reflect "the same muddled inadequacy as they handle the rest of their lives". They were nearly all born and raised in chaos.

How the Prison Service Works
1.Abuse and torture inmates at HMP Wormwood Scrubs
2.Take years to admit a regime of violence and torture.
3.Settle 46 claims, paying 1.7 million to prisoners.
5.Carry on as before.
4.Keep 11 of the 14 prison officers responsible in their jobs.

Prisoners must get right to vote, says court
UK: The government will be forced to lift a ban on prisoners voting dating back to 1870 after the European court of human rights ruled yesterday it breached a lifer's human rights.

Cherie calls for women to be kept out of jail
UK: Cherie Booth today launches an impassioned attack on the jailing of women, warning of a 'cycle of poverty and crime' spiralling down the generations unless more female criminals are spared prison.

Blunkett charges miscarriage of justice victims 'food and lodgings'
UK: WHAT do you give someone who's been proved innocent after spending the best part of their life behind bars, wrongfully convicted of a crime they didn't commit? An apology, maybe? Counselling? Champagne?Compensation?

Prison needle cleansing programme
The Department of Health and the Prison Service appeared to be at odds last night over a needle cleansing programme designed to protect prisoners from blood-borne infections such as HIV and hepatitis.

England tops the EU in imprisonment
England and Wales jail more offenders per capita than any other European, Union country, according to new figures. The imprisonment rate of 141 per 100,000 makes the countries the prison capital of Europe for the second year running.

Don't put mothers behind bars
If we are to arrest the soaring prison suicide rate among women, we need to look at alternative punishment.

UK Prison Abuse: Guards Holding Nooses
'We will kill you. We will get away with it... we've done it before' Prisoners tell of hanging threats by officers holding nooses.

K K K in the UK
In the documentary it is alleged an officer dressed in a Ku Klux Klan mask at a training centre in north-west England. An undercover reporter from the BBC also claimed to have taped racist comments by some officers.

Suicides and unrest have soared, admits Home Office
UK:The already overcrowded prison population is set to go on rising and will top 80,000 within the next three years, a senior Home Office civil servant warned yesterday.

My Sarah was smart and talented - Why did she die in jail?
LONDON: Sarah Campbell was just 18 when she killed herself [? committed suicide,] one of seven women to die in jail this year. Our correspondent asks why so many women kill themselves in prison [? commit suicide in prison.]