Charity group INQUEST: Dismay at first death of female prisoner in 2009
INQUEST notes with sadness the self-inflicted death of 36 year old Alison Colk in HMP Styal on 8th January 2009, a prison with a disturbing history of deaths of vulnerable women.
Deborah Coles, Co-Director of INQUEST said: “It is deeply shocking that a woman has died one day into her sentence.
Vital questions need to be asked about what possible justification can there be in sentencing a woman to just 28 days. Despite high level scrutiny of Styal prison,
“serious concerns remain about the safety and quality of life for women held there and why lessons from previous deaths appear not to have been learned. Unless more women are diverted from prison the increase in self inflicted deaths and the associated high levels of self harm, mental distress and family disruption will continue”.
Notes to editors:
1. This is the ninetieth self-inflicted death of a woman in prison in England and Wales since 1990. See Dying On The Inside: Examining Women’s Deaths In Prison for an in-depth examination of the issues.
2. Since 2000 there have been 12 self-inflicted deaths of women in Styal prison. The inquests held into many of these deaths have raised serious concerns about the quality of treatment and care afforded women in Styal and the inappropriateness of prison for many of the women held there.
