FRFI 163 October / November 2001
Somebody dies in British police, prison or mental health custody from violence or neglect every two to three days. FRFI spoke to Sonia Coley, of the United Friends and Families Campaign, whose brother died in Pentonville prison. His case is just one example of how these institutions dehumanise those they incarcerate, brutalising them with indifference and racism.
On 8 August 1999, a prison officer at The Mount prison, Hemel Hempstead took out a 2052 Self Harm form and contacted Pentonville prison in London to request that Curtis Coley be transferred there because he was suicidal and The Mount did not have facilities to look after him. The situation was clearly considered serious because prisoners are rarely moved at weekends.
While awaiting transfer, Curtis was placed in an isolation cell, where he inflicted superficial cuts to his wrists. ‘So where did he get the razor to cut himself?’ asks his sister. When he arrived at Pentonville, the 2052 form had been left at The Mount, so there was nothing to indicate that he was at risk. However, Pentonville staff did receive a Prison Escort Record form. ‘My brother’s name was on the form, but it wasn’t his details. The staff had put his name over the details of another inmate, so the form had “drug user” and all sorts of things that didn’t relate to my brother at all. They said they couldn’t find any other forms.’
Curtis was placed on the health care wing at Pentonville after speaking to the doctor for 10 minutes, but staff were not informed that he was suicidal. ‘Within four hours my brother was dead…If the form had followed my brother, he would be alive today,’ Sonia told us.
‘We were not told that Curtis had hanged himself until the following day, and then it took us a day or two to arrange a visit to the prison. By then all the crucial prison staff witnesses had been given exceptional leave and counselling. Nothing was offered to us as a family, nothing! The governor was saying stuff like, “He really wanted to end his life and perhaps Pentonville was the place he felt comfortable doing it”. It was just awful.’
Inquest cover-up
The inquest took place in March 2000 and took just one day. Both prisons blamed each other and key witnesses were not called until Curtis Coley’s family threatened to walk out in protest. ‘This horrible Coroner Chan in Islington really wanted to rush things through…It was a really, really harrowing experience.’
‘It was an all-white jury. Now we live in London and juries are meant to be representative of the population, so we queried that. The coroner refused to listen to our protest.’ Despite the coroner’s efforts to stop the family’s barrister raising the issue of negligence the jury returned with a verdict of ‘death by misadventure to which neglect contributed’.
There has been no action or reprimands since the verdict. The family can claim damages but ‘whatever award they make they will reduce by some percentage, to account for Curtis’ own contribution to his death,’ said Sonia.
Racist prison system
‘I know that prisons make people ill generally, whether they’re black or white, but I also know that the lack of care afforded my brother was due to race. Some of the things said about him at the inquest just confirmed it. Curtis was healthy with no history of mental health problems, so there is no way he could have gone to bed normal one night and woken up suicidal the following morning. There must have been signs he was becoming unwell and no one picked them up.
‘Once you go into prison, especially when you’re black, you’re no longer a human being; you just become a number. As long as you follow their rules and you behave and don’t cause any trouble you go relatively unseen. That’s what happened to my brother. Nobody took a blind bit of notice of him.’
‘The prison staff tried to soft-soap us and give us nice smiles, but it just came through in their eyes that they couldn’t give a toss. They’re doing their jobs and they know that the system will support them, so they’ve got nothing to worry about. They go on with their merry lives and we’re left to pick up the pieces.
Fight back
‘People need to get out there and help the campaigns make the government stop this happening. There are millions of youngsters out there who are going to be going through prisons and mental institutions. So we have to make the government accountable, to stop them killing people in these institutions and walking away, getting full pay, getting unconditional leave, getting counselling, while the families who have to bear the brunt of it get left out in the cold.’
The United Families and Friends Campaign can be contacted
c/o Inquest, Alexandra National House, 337 Seven Sisters Road, London N4 2PJ.
