Eastwood Park women’s prison in Gloucestershire has been the scene of some 20 deaths since 2016 due to mismanagement and neglect. The latest casualty of the system is Taylor, a trans prisoner, who took his own life on 9 July. Taylor’s friends have sent us this account and tribute:
Taylor is dead. He was meant to be on suicide watch but the prison failed him. We were informed by the prison governor at 3.30am on Sunday.
His story is one of abuse, injustice, transphobia and tragedy. It didn’t have to be this way. He was murdered by the state. His death should trigger resistance and rebellion inside and outside prisons everywhere.
Taylor was a trans prisoner trapped in the British prison system for over 14 years. He was sentenced to an Indeterminate Sentence for Public Protection (IPP), and had served 10 years longer in prison than the specified tariff. He was a beloved friend to anarchist comrades who met him in prison. He had ACAB on his knuckles and an anti-authoritarian spirit and a deep love for animals. He was a working class ‘old school’ prisoner who knew which side he was on. He hated the system with every ounce of his being.
Taylor was one of the first prisoner members of the Incarcerated Workers Organising Committee (IWOC) that was founded in England, Wales, Scotland and Ireland in 2015. He was also active with Smash IPP, contributing to the newsletter and encouraging other IPP prisoners to join the group.
For Taylor, the IPP was a death sentence. He was given four years for burglary but served 14 years before he died. The long-term imprisonment with no end-date totally destroyed Taylor’s mental health. He attempted suicide multiple times, including slitting his own throat and taking an overdose that led him to being in a coma twice. It eventually killed him.
We have 14 years of catalogued evidence of impossible parole hearings and prison failings. Taylor’s suicidality was used as an excuse to keep him in prison, yet his suicidality was caused by prison. There is only so much one human can take. Death became the only option for Taylor as all legal doors to freedom closed again and again.
We know Taylor was one of millions of people around the world kept in a cage. We know the state kills people on its borders, in detention centres, in prisons, in psychiatric hospitals. We know it’s those harmed by white supremacy, ableism, poverty and transphobia who face the sharpest end of this violence. Every single incarcerated person is a political prisoner.
We have no faith that the state can deliver any kind of justice. The inquest and the Prison and Probation Ombudsman’s report will not achieve ‘justice’. Prisons are working exactly as they are designed to. This horror is no accident. It is intentional.
Taylor’s blood is on the hands of the prison system. We call on comrades to honour Taylor by fighting for those still in prison. No more empty slogans, this is a life and death struggle. Rage is our weapon. RIP Taylor.
FIGHT RACISM! FIGHT IMPERIALISM! 289 August/September 2022
