Depressed man kills himself in private prison after 'fundamental errors' by staff

Mr Christopher Anderson told three separate GPs that he was intending to harm himself

Judge Bellamy said none of the people involved could be identified. (Getty)

A depressed young man killed himself at a privately-run prison after a series of “fundamental errors” by staff who ignored repeated warnings about his mental state, an official report has revealed.

Christopher Anderson, 26, was found hanging in his cell three weeks after arriving at HMP Forest Bank in Salford, which is operated by the private company Sodexo Justice Services on behalf of the Ministry of Justice. In a letter found nearby, he claimed staff at the prison had “failed” him and treated him “like shit”.

Mr Anderson died in November 2013, but the circumstances of his death have only recently come to light through the publication of a highly critical report by Nigel Newcomen, the Probation and Prisons Ombudsman. He said it was “difficult to understand” why staff at the jail had not regarded him as a suicide risk, adding that he was “very concerned” by their inaction.

The report details how Mr Anderson was not monitored for self-harm while in jail, despite a court mental health worker telephoning ahead to warn staff that he posed a high risk. He spent the first three days of his 19-week sentence in the prison’s healthcare unit recovering from the effects of an earlier drug overdose, telling three separate GPs that he intended to harm himself.

A few weeks later, the report says, staff monitored a telephone call he made to his mother in which he told her he “could not cope” in prison and asked her to “look after his children”. He was found hanging in his cell the following afternoon and died in hospital a day later.

According to Ministry of Justice figures, 84 people killed themselves in custody in England and Wales in 2014, the highest figure for seven years (Getty)

Two letters were found in Mr Anderson’s cell, one addressed to his family and the other to prison staff. The second letter read: “(You failed) Prison staff. I’m so sorry. Please do not help, not that you have before. You treated me like shit, I didn’t [deserve] it.” At the inquest into his death, a jury at Bolton Coroners Court found he had deliberately hanged himself with a bed sheet.

“Staff appear to have discounted a suicide warning from the court and then appear to have ignored the fact it was his first time in prison, he was suffering from depression, he had recently attempted to kill himself, he had relationship difficulties and had been convicted of violent offences against a family member,” Mr Newcomen wrote in his report.

“All of these are known risk factors which should have alerted staff. These were fundamental errors that were repeated throughout the man’s short stay at Forest Bank,” he added. His report made a serious of recommendations to improve procedures at the category B men’s prison, which can hold up to 1,460 inmates.

Andrew Neilson, director of campaigns at the Howard League for Penal Reform, said: “This is a damning report, which suggests that Sodexo staff at Forest Bank were not listening to the advice of medical practitioners and ignored many clear warning signs that a man was at risk.

“No one should be so desperate whilst they are in the care of the state that they take their own life, but we have seen an alarming rise in the number of cases in recent years. The Howard League, together with Centre for Mental Health, is conducting a joint investigation to explore the reasons why.”

The Ministry of Justice declined to comment on the report. A Sodexo Justice Services spokesperson said: “The death of a prisoner in our custody is always regrettable. We cooperated fully with the Prisons and Probation Ombudsman’s review, accepted the recommendations made and implemented an action plan which we have since completed.”

Deaths in police custody

Ministry of Justice figures released earlier this year show that 84 people killed themselves in custody in England and Wales in 2014, the highest figure for seven years. The statistics also showed a 5 per cent rise in self-harming.

Campaigners have blamed cuts to the number of prison staff and the country’s rising prison population for the rise. Nick Hardwick, the Chief Inspector of Prisons, told The Independent last year that overcrowding and staff shortages in jails are now so bad that they are directly fuelling a rise in suicides.

The number of self-harm incidents rose to 24,748 incidents in the year to September 2014, compared with 23,240 in the previous 12 month period, the figures showed. Since 2010 the number of prison officers, governors and support staff in public sector jails has fallen by 10,000, with half the jobs going in the past two years.