'Shameful' lack of secure beds led to prisoner killing himself, says coroner
A lack of secure beds that led to a mentally-ill prisoner killing himself in his cell was “shameful” in this day and age, a coroner has said.
Michael Bailey, 23, of Ladywood, Birmingham, was found dead by prison staff in his cell in the segregation unit at privately-run HMP Rye Hill, near Rugby, Warwickshire, in March 2005.
He had shown signs of increasingly “strange” behaviour in the days before his death and was placed on suicide watch but was later founding hanging in his cell, an inquest heard. On Monday, a jury at his inquest in Irthlingborough, Northamptonshire, ruled his death was avoidable and that not enough was done to prevent the tragedy.
Tom Osborne, assistant deputy coroner for Northamptonshire, planned to write to the Ministry of Justice and Department of Health about lack of availability of secure beds in the prison and health service. He said: “I believe that in this day and age it is shameful that there is not the ability to transfer somebody who is in urgent need of medical attention to an appropriate hospital.”
Giving a narrative verdict at the conclusion of the five-week inquest, the jury said Bailey killed himself while suffering from a mental illness.
The jury said there was a failure to carry out a full or adequate mental health
