6mCoroner says women’s prison safety hasn’t improved in a decade
On the first of February 2008, the senior coroner for West Yorkshire called for young women with severe mental illness not to be sent to prison. He urged the Prison Service and the Department of Health to keep them in secure places that could offer treatment and support.
10 years on – to the day – the SAME coroner has had to repeat the SAME plea at the close of an inquest into the death of 21-year-old Emily Hartley. She was sent to prison, despite a history of serious mental ill health.