PRESS RELEASE 13.02.01 - Fresh inquest ordered after high court overrules coroner on prison death

From: "INQUEST"

The high Court earlier today ordered a fresh inquest into the death of Keita Craig who took his own life within 24hours of entering HMP Wandsworth.

Keita Craig was 22-year-old black man with serious mental health problems. The jury at the inquest that was held on 13th and 14th April 2000 heard that he was given back the shoelaces he used to kill himself despite the fact they had earlier been taken away when he was deemed a suicide risk. At the end of the original inquest, the Coroner Dr Paul Knapman, made a series of recommendations that reflected his concern about the care and treatment of Keita Craig. Despite this he refused to allow the jury to consider a verdict incorporating neglect. The family's lawyers argued that the Coroner was wrong in law not to allow the jury this choice.

Today Lord Justice Keene sitting with MR Justice Penry-Davey quashed the verdict and ordered a fresh inquest with a new jury. They also said that it was wrong in law for Dr Knapman not to leave a verdict incorporating neglect for the jury to consider. Lord Justice Keene went on to say,

"The death of yet another inmate is a depressing reflection on our prison system and there is inevitably even greater bitterness and loss felt by relatives and friends when the deceased is, as here, a young man of 22 held in prison on remand. This was a young man already diagnosed as a paranoid schizophrenic, who killed himself in the Wandsworth prison health-care centre while, as the inquest jury found, the balance of his mind was disturbed. The fact that he suffered from that mental illness was known to those who were responsible for him at Wandsworth prison. Yet he was put into a single cell, he was not put under systematic observation at prescribed intervals, and he was allowed to have his long laces in his trainers. With those laces he managed to hang himself. It paints a very sorry picture."

INQUEST welcomes this landmark decision but believes the family should not have had to go to such lengths as the Coroner should have left a verdict incorporating neglect for the jury to consider at the original inquest. The judgement paints a damaging picture of the archaic prison system that continues to lock up those who should clearly be in hospitals. Both the Police and Courts who dealt with Keita en route to HMP Wandsworth recognised his vulnerable state and had taken steps to prevent him self harming (including removing his laces) yet the prison failed Keita and his family so tragically.

Sadly this death was one of seven deaths at Wandsworth last year. Many of the issues that have been highlighted in Keita's death are reflected in the others. An immediate government inquiry is needed into HMP Wandsworth particularly focusing on what on the woefully inadequate and inappropriate health care prisoners receive.

The High Court also ordered for the family's legal costs to be met jointly by the home office and the Coroner.

Helen Shaw, co-director INQUEST
 

Note for editors

In 2000 there were 7 self-inflicted deaths in HMP Wandsworth, the highest number in any prison in England and Wales that year.

At the inquest into the death of Adrian Pope, who died on 20 April 2000, days after the Keita Craig inquest, the jury returned a verdict that `he killed himself whilst suffering a mental illness'. INQUEST has major concerns about the imprisonment of people with mental health problems and the ability of the Prison Service to offer appropriate care for those at risk of self-harm. Martin Narey, Director General of the Prison Service, last week described Wandsworth as a `terrible place and hell hole'.

In August 2000 Parliament's Health Select Committee Inquiry Report into NHS Mental Health Provision noted `The evidence we received on the standards of prison healthcare shocked us. Dr. Reed (Chief Medical Officer of HM Inspectorate of Prisons) told us that "care for mentally disordered people in prison is frankly a disgrace. There is no other word to describe it. It is appalling".[495] Sir David reiterated his medical inspector's description, telling us that the staff in prison healthcare centres" are neither trained nor resourced to look after them appropriately and the result is, as I say, damage or deterioration, or both"=85. The organisation INQUEST described standards of care in prisons as "appalling" and argued that "in our view imprisoning people with mental health problems is inhuman, dangerous and can exacerbate their condition".

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