Remembering Pauline: One Year On…
originally published: May 2008
Pauline Campbell was found dead on 15th May 2008, lying on the grave of her daughter Sarah. Sarah died in January 2003 in HMP Styal.
INQUEST’s staff were very sad to receive news of the death of Pauline Campbell. We advised and supported Pauline after her 18 year old daughter Sarah died in Styal prison in January 2003 and through the long and difficult investigation and inquest process.
Her grief and anger at the horrendous circumstances in which her daughter died and the insensitive way she, as a bereaved parent, was treated after the death motivated her tireless campaigning to expose the continuing death toll in women’s prisons.
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 >
“2008 Demo Remembers”
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Pauline Campbell has died
Prisons campaigner Pauline Campbell found dead beside daughter’s grave
published: 15th May 2008
Prisons campaigner Pauline Campbell has died, the advice group Inquest said today.
Mrs Campbell, from Whitchurch, Shropshire, became a member of the organisation after her daughter, Sarah, 18, died of drug overdose at Styal prison in 2003. Her protests outside jails where women had died led her to being arrested several times.
It is understood Mrs Campbell was found this morning close to her
daughter’s grave in Malpas, Cheshire. A spokeswoman for Inquest confirmed Mrs Campbell had died although she couldn’t confirm the circumstances. A statement and tribute is expected to be released shortly.
