Remember Pauline

In the last five years 43 women have taken their own lives in prisons and already this year two more have been added to the toll.  The deaths of women in prison are still a national scandal.

The Howard League for Penal Reform have issued an appeal to support their national campaign to keep the issue of women in prison in the forefront of the public mind.

Pauline Campbell was a modern day suffragette. After the death of her only child, she held vigils outside prisons when a woman had committed suicide. She held 28 such vigils and was arrested 15 times. Despite being charged five times she was never convicted of an offence.

Soon after Sarah’s death, Pauline Campbell became a Trustee of the Howard League for Penal Reform and the charity have now decided to set up a fund to commemorate and continue her campaign.

The deaths of women in prison are still a national scandal. 43 women have taken their own lives in prisons in the last five years and already this year two more have been added to the toll. Tragically, one of the women hanged herself in Styal, a jail plagued by deaths and self-injury and severely criticised by the Chief Inspector of Prisons yet again last month. On her first night in the prison and sentenced to 28 days for theft, she was found suspended from a ligature in the first night centre of the prison.

For more information follow these links:

Read the appeal letter >
Donate to the campaign >
Information on women in prison >