‘Keep mentally ill out of custody’

The father of a girl who committed suicide in New Hall prison last
November has called for people with mental health problems not to
be placed in prisons.

Pledging his support for Community Care‘s “Back on Track”
campaign to reduce the number of young people in custody, Peter
Blanksby said that, if his daughter Petra had not been placed in
custody, she would be alive today.

Petra, who had been in the care system from the age of nine and
self-harming since the age of 13, was remanded in prison after
being charged with arson with intent for trying to kill herself by
setting alight the bungalow she was living in.

During the 130 days she spent in prison, Petra self-harmed on 92
occasions before killing herself last November.

– To support Community Care‘s campaign go to www.communitycare.co.uk/backontrack