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Pauline Campbell
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Prisoner’s cell death ‘inexcusable’
Campaigner attacks Pentonville
A PRISONS campaigner has criticised Pentonville jail over its handling of the death of a vulnerable inmate.
Pauline Campbell said she was angry that the Prison Service had apparently failed to learn lessons over the deaths of inmates.
Last month, the Tribune reported how Paul Calvert hanged himself at Pentonville in October 2004 while a prison warden played backgammon with inmates.
A St Pancras inquest heard how guards were unaware he was dead in his cell because staff had tampered with alarms.
Mr Calvert, who had a history of self-harm and depression, was allowed to keep a belt in his cell which he used to hang himself.
He was in the Caledonian Road prison for breaching his parole following a fight with a former girlfriend.
Ms Campbell wants to see better monitoring of vulnerable prisoners and more ‘first-night centres’ to assess inmates.
Prisons Ombudsman Lorenzo DelGuardio was brought in to investigate the catalogue of failures contributing to Mr Calvert’s death. He called for a review of the checks on the cell bell system, declaring it “clearly inadequate”. After the inquest the Prison Service said it recognised it needed to learn from the tragedy.
Ms Campbell said: “Pentonville Prison was unaware of Paul Calvert’s history of self-harm and it is inexcusable that this man has now died.”
She claimed that the Prison Service was so poorly run that wardens were unable to do their jobs properly, with the result that prisoners died.
Ms Campbell added: “It’s a management problem and I would say the supervision of guards is sadly lacking. It’s as if they do their own thing and time after time they get away with it.”
Her daughter, Sarah, died after taking a lethal overdose of anti-depression tablets less than 24 hours after starting a three-year prison sentence for manslaughter at Styal Prison in Cheshire.
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