BOATENG PROMISES URGENT HELP FOR PRISON HEALTHCARE

Twenty prisoners a day try to commit suicide or seriously harm
themselves, the Prison Service said last night.

Already this year, 65 prisoners have killed themselves and Paul
Boateng, a Home Office minister, admitted yesterday that conditions
for vulnerable prisoners were "not tolerable".

Making an emergency visit to Brixton prison, south London, where 21
prisoners have attempted suicide or harmed themselves in the past
month, Mr Boateng promised urgent reforms of prison healthcare. He
will today visit Holloway women's prison in London, where there are
acute concerns for vulnerable inmates, following the suicides of three
prisoners, Karen Green, 27; Sharon Peters, 35 and Jennifer Herod, 21,
so far this year.

Details of the problems at Brixton emerged after the leaking of a
warning letter from the governor, Bob Chapman, to his area manager,
Peter Atherton.

"Matters are so bad and deteriorating that I feel I cannot allow the
situation to continue," he wrote. "Delivery of healthcare falls far
short of the most basic acceptable standards."

The governor warned that his staff were being placed in an
"intolerable" position. "I believe that the only responsible action I
can take as governor of Brixton is to start refusing to accept
prisoners from the courts who are suffering from any form of mental
illness, or who require detoxification for drug abuse."

Mr Boateng emerged from his visit to the jail and said more temporary
staff and agency nurses would be drafted in to help meet prisoners'
needs.

Ken Wilshaw, the Prison Officers' Association's secretary for Brixton
Prison, said staff were demoralised by the standard of health care in
the jail. "We are a Victorian jail but we do not have to work to
Victorian standards," he said.