A convicted sex offender died in prison after taking an overdose of medication prescribed to him for anxiety, a watchdog report reveals. Steven Blake, who was 38, died in April, 2023, while serving a sentence at HMP Haverigg in Cumbria. A report by the Prisons and Probation Ombudsman, which investigates deaths in custody, has now […]
The decision to handcuff a prisoner who could not walk unaided has been condemned in an investigation into his death at HMP Isle of Wight. John Williams, 65, died at HMP Isle of Wight on May 29, 2023, due to advanced kidney disease and heart failure. Williams was jailed in August 2016 for 20 years, […]
The family of a man who died in prison are calling for the mandatory implementation of recommendations from fatal accident inquiries. Allan Marshall, 30, was on remand at HMP Edinburgh in March 2015 when he was restrained face down by 17 prison officers. He died four days later. The Scottish Prison Service has since admitted […]
On 10 December 2025 a jury returned a critical conclusion in a case concerned with the struggling women’s prison in South Gloucestershire, Eastwood Park. Taylor Atkinson was a trans man who died on 9 July 2022. He is thought to have been the only IPP prisoner left in the women’s estate who had never been […]
A coroner has called for action following a prisoner’s death at HMP High Down after an inmate said it was easier to get drugs or a mobile phone at the prison than sugar. Oliver Mulangala, 40, was found dead in his cell on 13 July 2024 and an inquest found it was a drug-related death […]
Failures by staff might have contributed to the death of a vulnerable prisoner who took his own life on his first night at HMP Hewell, an inquest jury has concluded. Mesut Olgun died in June 2018, six days after he was found hanging in his cell while on remand at the Worcestershire prison. The inquest […]
The Scottish Human Rights Commission (SHRC) has described the investigation of deaths in custody as “traumatising” for families and warned that an increase in fatalities was “unacceptable”. Alongside the charity Inquest, the commission spoke to 33 grieving relatives in a bid to improve the fatal accident inquiry (FAI) system in Scotland. FAIs investigate deaths in […]
A man who was jailed for the murder of a police officer during an armed robbery died in prison from lung cancer less than a year after he was sentenced, an inquest heard. Piran Ditta Khan, 76, died on 21 February at Wakefield Prison after he was sentenced for his role in the fatal shooting […]
A coroner has raised concerns over people held in prison who should be in a mental health facility after a prisoner fatally choked on a piece of underwear. Diana Grant controlled her paranoid schizophrenia with medication but is believed to have been in a state of psychosis when she died at HMP Bronzefield, Surrey, in […]
The prisons watchdog has ordered an ‘urgent review’ into the use of segregation at HMP Styal following the death of an inmate. Alex Davies, who had severe borderline personality disorder and post-traumatic stress disorder, was found hanged in her segregation cell while on remand at the Cheshire prison on Christmas Eve last year. Following an […]
Prisons and Probation Ombudsman Adrian Usher has published a Learning lessons bulletin that summarises research from PPO investigations from the past ten years where a prisoner’s death was caused by epilepsy or the prisoner was diagnosed with epilepsy. PPO research found the care prisoners with epilepsy receive could be improved and highlights areas requiring further […]
The daughter of a North Yorkshire man who suffered an “inhumane, degrading and undignified death” in prison has settled a High Court legal claim against the government for a five-figure sum. Melanie Kalay took legal action against the Ministry of Justice and the City Health Care Partnership (CHCP), which provides health and care services, under […]