News

Campaigners have called for urgent action after two young women died in custody last week.

Marie Walsh, 29, was found dead in her cell at New Hall prison in West Yorkshire, the day after Rebecca Turner, 22, took her own life at Low Newton, the prison and young offender institution in Durham.

Deborah Coles, co-director of campaign group Inquest, slammed the news as "utterly shocking".

She said: "These deaths are an indictment of a criminal justice system that uses prison as a dumping ground for some of the most vulnerable people in society and raises serious concerns about the systemic failings of the Prison Service and its ability to keep women in its custody safe."