In October 2022, the charity Inquest published a report detailing the effects of institutional racism on the prison estate which reveals how even a short term in prison could spell a death sentence for ethnic minorities.* The report shows that neglect of physical health in the prison system is highest amongst black, Asian and mixed-race people. This is also the case for neglect of mental health (including people of eastern European background). Black and mixed race people in prison were actually affected the most in six out of seven of the critical issues outlined in the report: inappropriate use of segregation, racial stereotyping, bullying, victimisation and the failure to respond to warning signs, as well as neglect of physical and mental health.
Numerous cases in this report provide examples of these issues such as that of Annabella Landsberg, a 45-year-old mixed-race woman born in Zimbabwe and living in Britain. She was HIV+, had type 2 diabetes and had sustained a brain injury as a result of tuberculosis. She arrived at HMP Peterborough after spending a few months at other women’s prisons, and was often placed in segregation with staff describing her behaviour as ‘challenging’. On 2 September 2017, Annabella was restrained and taken to segregation by an officer, who had removed her body camera. There she was observed on the floor unresponsive for the next 21 hours. The Prison and Probation Ombudsman investigation into her death infers that the decision to place her into segregation was unwarranted. During the time she was on the floor of the segregation unit, discipline and healthcare staff assumed she was faking an illness. On 3 September staff observed that Annabella appeared to have wet herself and called for a nurse to check on her. Instead of assessing her, the nurse threw a cup of water over her, still claiming that Annabella was faking illness. Later that day, she was taken to hospital where she was found to be severely dehydrated and suffering from multiple organ failure. Annabella died three days later.
Winston Augustine was a 43-year-old, mixed-race man who had a history of depression and drug use, and was suffering from cancer. On 28 August 2018, Winston was transferred to segregation for 48 hours with the door remaining locked the entire time. He was deprived of food, exercise, showers and phone calls and was only given one low dose of pain-relief medication, despite having been prescribed a daily dose. The day he got out of segregation, he was found hanging in his cell and pronounced dead. His body was in a state that suggested starvation and pathologists estimated that he died four hours prior to being found.
Tyrone Givans was a 32-year-old black man who was profoundly deaf and had a history of alcohol abuse, depression, self-harm and anxiety. He was remanded into police custody without his hearing aids and, on 7 February 2018, transferred to HMP Pentonville, where two staff members noted that he was deaf and without hearing aids. No effort was made to obtain them or to accommodate Tyrone’s disability. During the transfer, Tyrone expressed suicidal thoughts but this was not recorded in the Person Escort Record. Over the next two weeks, Tyrone complained to family members that he felt unsafe in his wing due to his mattress being slashed and that he felt vulnerable without his hearing aids. Family members twice asked prison staff to look after him and reported the issue with the mattress but an officer denied that Tyrone had said anything about feeling unsafe and wanting to be relocated. On 26 February, he was found hanging in his cell and he died later that day.
Back in March 2021, the government released the report from the Commission on Race and Ethnic Disparities, which it had commissioned in response to Black Lives Matter protests in 2020. That report, which was widely criticised, concluded that Britain is not institutionally or systemically racist. This clear refusal by the government to acknowledge the existence of institutional racism is part and parcel of the neglect and brutality, which are reflected in the deaths of so many prisoners.
Yara Osman
* Deaths of racialised people in prison 2015-2022: Challenging racism and discrimination
FIGHT RACISM! FIGHT IMPERIALISM! 291 December 2022/January 2023
