Mentally ill are found screaming in unsafe prison

By Richard Ford, Home Correrspondent, The Times, May 24, 2002

A WOMEN'S jail where deeply disturbed prisoners in the healthcare centre constantly "cry, scream and shout" for attention has been condemned as an establishment in crisis.

One girl, aged 17, who was very disturbed, spent almost 60 days in segregated cells, according to a report published today by Anne Owers, the Chief Inspector of Prisons.

Four women held in a special wing for their own safety at Eastwood Park prison in Gloucestershire could mix only in the corridor outside their cells where they also had to take their meals. "In our view this amounted to sensory deprivation," Ms Owers says.

Women in the jail's healthcare centre had not been out in the fresh air for two weeks, the report says.

The report is published as the overall prison population reaches a record level of more than 71,000. Niall Clifford, operational manager of women's jails, said they would run out of places for women by July.

The inspection of the jail also found that half the women were inactive and that in one month there had been 47 incidents of self-harm and 56 new suicide risks.

Ms Owers says inspectors found that conditions and treatment of inmates had seriously deteriorated since their last visit. "This is a very troubling report of an establishment in crisis and unable to provide a safe, decent and constructive environment for many of the women and girls within it," she says.

The unannounced inspection of the jail, which holds 301 inmates including 60 girls as young as 15, found a management unable to cope with the demands of a rapidly rising jail population. Ms Owers adds: "It is a picture of an establishment whose management had been overwhelmed by the real difficulties it faced, to the extent that it was unable to provide coherent leadership, strategy or regime. It had resorted to reactive crisis management, creating unacceptable deficits in safety, decency and constructive activity for prisoners, and impossible working conditions for staff."

The healthcare centre is described as bleak and the acting governor said: "After five minutes you would need to get out". The report says: "At the time of the inspection the healthcare centre held extremely agitated women who had varying degrees of mental health problems. Women were crying, screaming, and shouting and were continually requesting medical attention."

Mr Clifford said that not all the conclusions were accepted: "Like all inspector's reports, they record what they see. We have different opinions from the conclusions they draw."

He said the main problems faced by the prison were the same as elsewhere: rising prisoner numbers and difficulty in recruiting and retaining staff.

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