Sad loss of a great campaigner on prison reform

I was shocked to read in today's Citizen that prisons' campaigner Pauline Campbell, whose daughter died of a drug overdose in jail, was found dead on Thursday near the entrance to the graveyard where her child was buried. Tragic indeed.

It was also a strange cooincidence that I should be writing the blog entry earlier today about prisons. Indeed Pauline was an inspiration in tirelessly raising the issue of prison conditions - and as Greens have also highlighted locally our prisons still need urgent attention (see here). Here is the comment I left on the Citizen website:

Pauline Campbell tirelessly shed light on the fact that we continue to detain women in a system that cannot keep them safe. The lack of state accountability, and the failure to take action to prevent deaths is shocking. Inquests have continued to expose appalling conditions of incarceration like inadequate healthcare, overuse of force, the use of segregation and isolation for suicidal women, failure to implement suicide prevention guidelines and a lack of staff training. This ongoing abuse of human rights calls for a fundamental rethink of the way women are dealt with by our criminal justice system. As Pauline Campbell highlighted, we urgently need reforms. Her death is a great loss indeed.

The Citizen report: Mrs Campbell who organised two protests outside Eastwood Park Prison, near Wotton-under-Edge - one of which in January 2007 she was arrested for - was described by prison reform groups "inspiring campaigner" and a "human being of indescribable bravery". The 60-year-old, from Whitchurch, Shropshire, was arrested 15 times for protesting outside jails across the country where women inmates had died of apparent suicide. She held 28 demonstrations and was charged five times for her direct action, which included blocking prison vans, but she was never convicted. Mrs Campbell's 18-year-old daughter, Sarah, died of drug overdose at Styal prison, Cheshire, in January 2003, the third of six women to die at the jail in 12 months. A spokeswoman for advice group Inquest, of which Mrs Campbell was a member, confirmed she had died but could not confirm the circumstances.

See Guardian obituary here and Pauline's interview in Community Care here.