Mother demands answers on deaths

The mother of an 18 year old who died at Styal Prison in Cheshire
has attacked the government for failing to act sooner to prevent
her daughter’s death and those of five other young women.

Pauline Campbell’s daughter Sarah Elizabeth died in January 2003,
and was the third of six women to commit suicide in 12
months.

An investigation into the deaths commissioned by prisons minister
Paul Goggins and carried out by ombudsman Stephen Shaw revealed a
host of problems (news, page 14, 29 January).

In a letter to Community Care, Campbell said: “I fail to
understand why it took six months before Paul Goggins, prison
minister, ordered an ‘independent’ inquiry. Had prompt and
effective action been taken following the first death, the lives of
five women might have been saved.”