PM Custody death response rejected
Statement from 4WardEver UK
3rd October 2009
The United Families & Friends Campaign and 4WardEver UK reject the Prime Ministers response to a previous petition against custody deaths on the Number10 e-petition website. We challenge the Prime Minister once again to address the issues raised.
Petition: Access Here >
Available until 31st March 2010 (target 2000 signatures)
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4WardEver UK decided to launch a separate and international appeal demanding a change in the policies and practices that continue to see people dying and abused in the so-called care of the state.
The United Families & Friends Campaign is a coalition of families and friends of those that have died in the custody of police and prison officers as well as those who are killed in secure psychiatric hospitals.
Between 1969 and 1999 over one thousand people died in police custody in England. Not one police officer has ever been convicted for any of these deaths. The film INJUSTICE depicts how Brian Douglas, Joy Gardner, Shiji Lapite and Ibrahima Sey met violent deaths at the hands of the police and documents a five year period when their families came together to fight for the truth.
See original petition on the No10 Website >
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Many thanks for your continued support.
The 4WardEver UK Team
Lost Daughters Campaign
Take Action Now!
Did you know… around half of all incidents of self-injury in prison are caused by women, even though women make up about 5% of the prison population.
We need you to take action and help prevent the deaths of more women in custody.
This is the first ever monthly action email and every month we will ask you to carry out a small task to help promote the campaign.
This month we want to know about any groups or organisations that you are involved in. This can be church or community groups, theatre companies, mother and toddler or any other kind of group.
Howard League for Penal Reform fund to commemorate 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 >
