SCOTLAND. HEROIN. JAIL. SUICIDE. WHY?

Gavin Hester banged on his cell door and screamed for help the night before
he hanged himself. According to fellow inmates, Hester, a car thief and
heroin addict, was suffering unnecessary withdrawal symptoms because prison
authorities refused to prescribe the heroin substitute methadone. The guard
told him to get back to bed, they said.

At 4.40 the following afternoon he was found dead. Bert Keaney, a former
addict and one of Hester's closest friends among the inmates at Greenock
Prison near Glasgow, said he believed Hester could not face the prospect of
another night.

His death started a tragic chain reaction which caused serious
embarrassment for Scottish Office Ministers challenged to explain why the
country has double the number of prison suicides of England and Wales,
where the prison population is far higher.

Hester's old friend, Mary Cowan, a young mother held for shoplifting in the
notorious Cornton Vale prison near Stirling, asked for permission to attend
his funeral. According to friends, she was refused. Her mother and sister,
who did attend the funeral, travelled to Cornton Vale soon after to let her
know how it had passed off. They were too late. She, too, had hanged
herself.

Another member of Hester and Cowan's crowd, David Thomson, a fellow
Greenock inmate and also a heroin addict, had, according to friends, seen
Hester's body hanging in his cell. He was so distressed that he also
created a noose and tried to take his life.

Thomson was found in time, taken to hospital where he recovered, and is now
back at Greenock. According to prison officers, Thomson was told by
prosecutors that he would not be allowed to speak to The Observer because
he was on remand awaiting trial.

Had he been allowed to speak, he might have provided a unique insight into
why the prison has had 12 suicides in the past three years, why Barlinnie,
also in Glasgow, has had 38 in the past 12 years, and why Scotland as a
whole has had 80 suicides since 1992.

Prison medical officers who criticise the anti-methadone policies at
Greenock and Barlinnie point to Saughton prison, Edinburgh, where methadone
is available on prescription and only two inmates have killed themselves in
the past four years.

There is no official Scottish Prison Service policy on methadone. Decisions
are left in the hands of the prison medical officers.

Hester's mother, Margaret, and sister, Susan, believe it is this system
which failed him. "Gavin did not get the help he needed. He was on
methadone, prescribed by his GP, but he did not get it in prison," said his
mother.

"God forgive me, I used to say 'At least I know where he is when he's
inside'. But I never thought I'd get him back in a coffin."

She said her son was sent to a children's home at nine for skipping school
and had spent more of his adult life in prisons than out. He had no enemies
and was known affectionately as 'The Big Chap' by all who knew him, a
gentle giant described as "a good laugh". She produced a letter from one of
his English tutors in Barlinnie who said he was the brightest in his class.

"He was full of life. He loved his daughter and saw her regularly. I just
can't believe he hanged himself, and I want answers," she said.

Hester's friends and family are angry that it could be nine months before a
Fatal Accident Inquiry is held, and that no information can be released
until then.

Keaney said he was allowed to visit Hester's cell with his two sisters to
collect his belongings, and that while there they were allowed to talk to
his fellow inmates.

It was not clear whether Hester was given Lofexidine, the drug prescribed
at Greenock for those suffering from withdrawal symptons, said Keaney. But
if he was, he said, it would not have helped him. "I've been through it and
it does nothing for you. The Lofexidine programme runs for 12 days, but I
lasted only three. I could not cope with it because the pain was
unbearable. It was agony, aches, pains, sweating, sickness, diarrhoea,
physical and mental torture."

Prison Service sources said methadone caused as many problems as it solved,
and that a survey in Glasgow found it had caused more deaths than heroin
itself.

Scottish Prisons Minister Henry McLeish said the debate over the use of
methadone in prisons mirrored the debate outside, but he added: "Every
prisoner should be given the best possible care, especially in relation to
drugs. The prison service will be looking at ways of improving treatment,
and there will be extra cash to make sure that happens. I will be making an
announcement on Monday on law and order, and that will include drug-related
social work."

Checked-by: (Joel W. Johnson)