The Shortcomings of Styal

A WOMAN urinated in her dustbin because staff were too ‘busy’ to unlock her cell. The most troubled prisoners have telephones with a direct link to the Samaritans, but they don’t work. Few staff know first-aid. The windows are thick with cobwebs and flies. And those who are too rowdy are simply stripped and put in ‘the special cell.’

You’d be forgiven for thinking that this was Guantánamo. In fact, it is Styal women’s prison on the outskirts of Manchester, and the subject of yet another critical investigation.

Eleven women have taken their own lives in Styal since 2000. It is the second largest women’s prison after Holloway in north London but has the highest levels of self-harm and suicide. The prison is not learning its lessons. Just what is it about Styal?

“The level of need and vulnerability of the women at Styal, even by the standards of women’s
prisons, was extremely high,” said Anne Owers, Chief Inspector of Prisons, in her investigation report.

“All women’s prisons hold a disturbed and challenging population, but at Styal the needs of a heavily substance dependent population were extreme, complex and growing.”

On arrival at Styal, a third of women say they are depressed or suicidal, over 40 per cent said they have health problems, over half have drug problems, and nearly 40 per cent alcohol problems.

The most challenging women are managed on the Keller unit where cells are limited to ten. Between January and July last year, there were 1,335 recorded incidents of self-harm, with the Keller unit accounting for 71 percent.

Owers said prison staff lacked the training to deal with the mentally ill women on this unit.

“It aimed to provide a therapeutic environment, but it was staffed by prison officers who lacked the training, support and leadership to deal with this group of women.

“Many senior officers had not completed case manager training and about 50 staff had not been trained in the basic procedures.

“Staff working at night were alert and responsive to risk, but few were first aid trained.”

One man who knows this first-hand is John Gunn, brother of Lisa Marley, who killed herself on Keller unit last year.

“Styal prison is not catering for the girls with mental health problems,” said Mr Gunn, of Blackpool. “They haven’t got a clue.”

“My sister was supposed to be on suicide watch but no-one was watching her when she hung herself from the TV brackets on the wall. Every single one of them guards should be sacked.

“They all cover each other’s backs, and they’re getting away with it. If you had made that many cock-ups in any other job, you’d be sacked. If it was an old people’s home, it would be closed down.”

One charity also has concerns about the safety of Styal’s prisoners.

Deborah Coles for INQUEST said: “Despite high level scrutiny of Styal prison, serious concerns remain about the safety and quality of life for women held there and why lessons from previous deaths appear not to have been learned.”

Prisons Minister, David Hanson, has defended claims that the government is not putting enough money into staff training.

He told Eve: “The government has invested £600,000 over three years on mental health awareness training for prison officers and staff.

“The Women Awareness Staff Programme (WASP) is a two-day course that helps meet the awareness needs of staff,” said Mr Hanson.

“It covers why women come to prison, how staff can support the women, the difference between working with men and women in prison and self-harm.”

The scheme was implemented last year and aims to train over 600 members of staff across prisons in England and Wales each year.

The Owers report also said that too much force was used against inmates.

“Force was used on Keller unit to place women in protective clothing routinely and against their will, which was entirely inappropriate.

“Records indicated that force had been used as a last resort, but some contained little evidence of de-escalation and in some cases it was difficult to see how the use of force could be justified.”

The prison’s handling of drug addiction also came under fire.

Owers said: “Methadone should be issued to women who need it without undue delay. There were some unacceptable delays in issuing the medication, which caused women considerable anxiety.”

A methadone replacement programme to control drug addiction was only introduced in 2005. Methadone is thought to be a less harmful equivalent of heroin. Before this inmates had to go cold turkey.

Anna Baker, aged 29, hung herself in Styal in 2002 while withdrawing from heroin. The methadone replacement programme was not available at the prison, so she was given painkillers instead.

Her inquest concluded that the drug detoxification programme she was placed on was “inappropriate and insufficient to her needs.”
Jan Palmer, a consultant psychiatrist, told the jury that the treatment fell short of what Baker would have received in the community.
Owers also called for “more vigilant supervision” of medicine queues in case prisoners stole from the medicine trolley. This wouldn’t be the first time.

Julie Walsh, aged 39, died in Styal in 2003 after an overdose of drugs stolen from the medicine trolley. Walsh drank 500ml of Dothiepin thinking it would help her sleep through the discomfort of heroin withdrawal.

Four other women who also drank the medication survived. The inquest into her death heard that a nurse left the drugs trolley unattended for several minutes after handing out medicines.

Nina*, aged 19, has been in and out of Styal for two years. She says it is easy to sneak drugs into the prison.

She told Eve: “We sneak them in in our bras and knickers because you never get strip searched anymore.

“It’s easy to take other people’s meds but it depends what nurses are on. Some make you swallow it in front of them but you can keep it under your tongue then give it to someone else if you wanted to.”

The report also blamed the prison for poor facilities. One room in the first-night centre, where women spend their first 48 hours in prison, didn’t even have toilets.

“One woman said she had urinated in her dustbin because staff would not unlock her to use the toilet,” said Owers.

“Staff did not deny that this could happen and explained that the one officer on duty had to call for others on duty at night to unlock a prisoner, which ‘might take some time’ on a busy night.”

Cordless telephones to contact the Samaritans had been recently purchased for Waite wing, which houses the most violent offenders. But these were “out of order for several weeks,” said the report.

Some parts of the prison are untidy and overcrowded, Owers said.

“Although communal areas of the houses were well furnished and decorated, some of the bedrooms were overcrowded and shabby,” she said.

One room in Willow House (for young women) was being shared by six women.

She noted litter left in the showers, and windows “full of flies and cobwebs.” In reception, the walls of one holding room were “crumbling and badly damaged by damp.”

Bullying is also a serious problem in the prison, according to the report. A third of women say they have been victimised by another prisoner but staff monitoring was in vain.

“There were only limited interventions to tackle bullying,” Owers said.

“Ongoing monitoring was ineffective and formal monitoring often stopped simply due to lack of
staff entries in observation booklets.”

A spokesperson for Styal declined to comment about the inspection report.

Despite its flaws, Owers praised some aspects. Relationships between staff and prisoners had improved, and the mother and baby unit “offered the best and most constructive environment we have seen in such a facility,” she said.

Owers questioned whether prison is the right place for female offenders.

“There is the prior question of whether such women should be in prison at all,” she said.

“But while they are, there is the need to provide a much better resourced and professionally led therapeutic environment to support them.”

By Lois Hough
*Names have been changed to protect identity