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Prison Grasses

Parents' claims prompt new inquiry into jail death of police informant, by Rich Cookson and Duncan Campbell 9 June 2006
Crucial visit by solicitor 'withheld from inquest'
Prisoner admitted making up evidence, family says

Death in Frankland segregation unit - questions remain unanswered 

by Pauline Day

My name is Pauline Day and I am the mother of Paul Day who tragically took his own life in Frankland prison segregation unit on 2 October 2002. On 7 December 2005 Paul was the subject of a television documentary on Channel Five.  The programme showed harrowing footage of a video taken by prison officers of Paul being moved off of a dirty protest on the last day of his life.

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The dirtiest secret of our jail system, by Eric Allison 4 March 2005

 

Inquest exposes brutal regime in Frankland seg unit

Eric Allison reports on the inquest into Paul Day's death
source: Miscarriages of Justice UK (MOJUK) News Service
On 2 October 2002, 31-year-old Paul Day was found hanged in the segregation unit of Frankland prison.  His death occurred on the very night that he came off a dirty protest in the unit. The protest, the last in a series described by the coroner as the biggest in the UK's prison system outside of Northern Ireland, was the prisoners' response to a brutal and callous regime that had been operating, unchecked, in Frankland segregation unit for years.

The inquest lasted for four and a half weeks, and heard from prisoners and ex-prisoners, from members of prison staff, from Paul's former solicitor and from his parents. The jury heard graphic details about the dirty protests and the treatment of the men on them, as well as the harrowing details of Paul Day's own odyssey through the prison system to Frankland.  They were even taken to see the segregation unit, a place where outsiders seldom venture.  No doubt spotlessly clean on the day of their visit, they would nonetheless have been able to picture the seg two and a half years earlier as a Dante-esque arena of torment, where men daubed their bodies and cells with their own excrement for weeks on end. They heard that, far from persuading the men to end their protest, staff subjected the prisoners to constant verbal abuse and did everything in their power to make the dreadful conditions worse. Prisoner after prisoner gave evidence of abuse from screws.

The jury must have wondered what drives men to eat, drink and live in such an environment. Dirty protests are not entered into lightly; they are undertaken by men in desperate circumstances, who feel there is little else they can do to protect themselves. As former prisoner Jimmy Boyle once put it: 'The screws liked the taste of my blood, they did not like the taste of my shit.'

Anthony Wood, one of the protesters was brought from the cages at Wakefield to give evidence to the inquest.  He described how he'd been given a jacket potato that had dead flies carefully inserted into its centre.  Another former protester, Gordon Foley, now in Barlinnie, told how he'd been driven on to the protest because, 'In 31 years in gaol, I'd never experienced anything like the seg unit at Frankland.'
He said that, after Paul Day's death, he, (Foley) had been stripped naked by screws and thrown into a freezing cell. He was then moved to the cages at Wakefield and when he arrived there, his body was 'black and blue from the beatings' he'd received.

In what was, at least in my experience, an unprecedented show of prisoner solidarity; a large number of cons and former cons who had not been involved in the protest gave evidence to the inquest. All bar one testified to the abuse that had taken place.  (And that one's evidence was so transparently toadying as to cause jury members to shake their heads in disbelief. Surprise, surprise, he was still at Frankland and thought all screws were wonderful!).  To their credit, many were vulnerable prisoners, still in the system. Yet they named incidents of abuse they had witnessed and did not hesitate to name the screws involved. Serving prisoners who are still 'listeners' (prisoners trained by the Samaritans to support distressed fellow prisoners), and therefore in a somewhat privileged position, came forward to damn the regime at Frankland. Prisoners everywhere owe a debt to these men, whatever their antecedents. They have spoken up and been listened to.

Top of everybody's list of the staff who went out of their way to make prisoners' life a misery was one screw; Paul Sirrell.  The jury was told by one prisoner that Sirrell called Paul Day a 'nigger bastard', and by at least five others that he was the 'main instigator' of the abuse. Sirrell is still a prison officer, and has been promoted since Paul's death.

The verdict was more than a decision on a death in custody; it was an indictment of the whole stinking segregation system. Furthermore, some parts of the verdict clearly exposed prison officers who gave evidence at the inquest to have lied under oath.  Inquest juries now give their verdict in the form of a narrative.  The narrative into Paul Day's death included the findings that
o inadequate information about Paul was provided to HMP Frankland prior to his transfer and he himself was misled about the nature of this transfer, with the result 'that he felt abandoned, frustrated, depressed, helpless and defeated. He also lost trust in the system and his carers'.
o Paul suffered verbal abuse from fellow prisoners in the segregation unit at HMP Frankland and the staff did not act reasonably to deal with this 
o the systems in place to effectively manage and care for Paul were inadequate. There was a lack of staff on night shifts. The 2052 system (suicide prevention) failed, the observations on Paul were not effectiveŠchecks were insufficient and the entries of poor quality; checks by management were not done on the entries; the complaints procedure was too slow. Suicide awareness training was not frequent enough.
o The dirty protest protocol was not adhered to. No attempt was made to find out why Paul went on to the dirty protest. There was no encouragement to come off the dirty protest. Paul was moved back onto the same spur as the dirty protest after his shower on the day he died
o Delay in seeing the doctor was inappropriate. 
o Paul was intimidated and mentally abused.
Paul Day was serving eight years for robbery.  He was a self-confessed, registered police informer. In that capacity, he had, without doubt, helped to imprison a large number of people over a long period, and would always have been in danger as a result.  However, he was moved to Frankland at the point he told the police he was no longer prepared to play this role.  He was told he was going to a safe unit where he would be protected.  No such unit existed.  Instead he was put in the segregation unit, where he suffered abuse, firstly from other prisoners who knew who and what he was; then, when despite all this, he vociferously took the side of the men on the dirty protests, directly from the screws. 

By the end of the inquest, I found myself having massive sympathy for Paul Day and my over-riding emotions were rage at a prison system that could allow such treatment to any individual and disgust at those whose task it is to monitor the welfare of prisoners on behalf of the public.

Not least of the factors that influenced me was hearing the testimony of, 'ordinary' prisoners who had been driven to protest in this awful manner. Like me, as criminal and prisoner, they must have considered grasses to be of the lowest order. Yet, when Paul Day showed solidarity by joining their protest, and after witnessing the appalling treatment at the hands of staff, they came to this inquest to tell the truth. In doing so, they were able to help his family, who are fine, courageous people, to take on the might of the Home Office and ensure that this window of degradation was exposed to public view.

Frankland prison, Like Whitemoor, Long Lartin and Full Sutton, is set in pleasant English countryside; in Frankland's case, a few miles north of the cathedral city of Durham. Yet in all those places, of late, dirty protests have taken place.
The Chief Inspector of Prisons, Ann Owers, has written to Mr and Mrs Day promising that her office will carry out a 'thematic review into the way prisoners are treated in segregation units in the dispersal estate'.   This is a very positive step towards exposing the hideous brutality that has gone on unchecked in these places and I encourage all prisoners who read this paper and have done recent time in the blocks to write to the Inspectorate describing your experiences, naming names and giving details. The more evidence that is presented of what we all know to be the rotten regime in these stinking places, the harder it will be for the abusers, and those at every level in the system who allow the abuse to carry on to wriggle away.

Suicide prisoner let down by jail staff, says jury

By Tom Wilkinson,


A vulnerable inmate who took his own life in a high security segregation unit was let down by the Prison Service, a jury ruled yesterday.

After a five-week inquest, a jury found a series of systematic failures contributed to the death of a police and prison informant, Paul Day.

The 31-year-old robber from Southend-on-Sea, Essex, was found hanged in his cell at HMP Frankland, Durham, in October 2002, despite being under close observation because he was at known risk of self-harm.

He was serving an eight-year sentence and had spells at Parkhurst, Pentonville, Cardiff, Highdown and Frankland.

Day had attempted to take his own life at Wandsworth prison, and, on one occasion, prison officers urged him to jump from a high gantry, the inquest was told. As a known informant, he was targeted for abuse from fellow inmates.

He protested about his treatment and the jury heard he was sent 300 miles from his native south-east to Frankland, because he thought he would be sent to a witness protection unit.

The inquest jury at Chester-le-Street magistrates' court found he had been misled, as no such unit existed.

The foreman said: "We believe the effect on Paul was that he felt abandoned, frustrated, depressed, helpless and defeated. He also lost any trust in the system and in his carers."

The foreman said Day had been abused by fellow inmates and that staff had not done enough to stamp it out.

This is the North East

Prison officer says he was not responsible for death

by Gavin Engelbrecht 18th February 2005
A senior prison officer yesterday rejected claims that he bore a significant responsibility for the death of an inmate found hanged in a cell.
Leslie Thomas, representing the family of Paul Day, claimed senior officer Paul Sirrell had treated Day "appallingly", despite the fact he was on suicide watch, and also accused Mr Sirrell of racism.
Mr Thomas levelled the charges at Mr Sirrell at the end of an intense cross-examination at an inquest in Chester-le-Street, County Durham.
Mr Sirrell, who was an officer on the segregated unit at Durham's Frankland Prison at the time of Day's death, rejected the allegations. He said he had always treated all prisoners with respect and "abhorred racism in every shape and form."
He was testifying at the end of the third week of the inquest into the death of Day, 31, from Essex.
Day had been serving a sentence of eight years for robbery and assaulting an inmate.
The hearing was told that Day had been taking part in one of the biggest dirty protests ever seen in a British jail. On the day he died, in October 2002, he had asked to come off the protest, but was left waiting for three hours before he was taken for a shower. Mr Sirrell said the delay was acceptable, because staff had other duties.
During this period, no visits to Day had been logged, despite an instruction on his suicide watch form that he should be checked frequently. Mr Sirrell said he understood the instruction to mean once every hour, though an officer responsible for the instruction said earlier it should have been four times an hour.
Mr Sirrell denied claims he had targeted Day for opposing how other protestors were allegedly being mistreated. He said that despite weeks of a "horrendous" protest, he was "impressed by the way everyone maintained their professionalism." Mr Thomas said Mr Sirrell had every motive to lie about the events leading to Day's death.
"You bear significant responsibility for this man taking his life," he said. "I suggest you treated him in an appalling way for a man on suicide watch, and vulnerable. At one point you suggested to Day that if he was going to hang himself he should just get on with it."
Mr Sirrell rejected the allegations. The hearing continues.

This is the North East

 

Prisoner was told: Jump to your death

Prison officers urged a police informer who was threatening to jump from a gantry to throw himself to his death, an inquest was told yesterday.
Although Paul Day was eventually persuaded to climb down, the vulnerable inmate was later found hanged in his cell at Durham's Frankland prison.
Yesterday, an inquest into his death heard from a prison officer how staff had urged him to jump during his protest, which was carried out at Wandsworth Prison, in London.
Principal Prison Officer Andy Toppin told the hearing, at Chester-le-Street Magistrates' Court, in County Durham, that it was his job to talk down Day.
But he said: "It didn't help that other staff who were there were behaving in an unprofessional manner, giving him abuse and shouting at him to jump."
Mr Toppin said that instead of isolating the area, staff had let other prisoners in from the exercise yard. As Day balanced above them, fellow inmates joined in a chorus of: "Let him fall."
Mr Toppin agreed with Leslie Thomas, the lawyer representing Day's parents, that this was "outrageous conduct".
Day claimed a senior officer at the prison had betrayed him by telling other prisoners he was an informer.
He told a prison chaplain that he was afraid of reprisals because he had been passing information to prison authorities. He also claimed to have worked with corrupt policemen when he was out of jail.
Day claimed they gave him information to carry out robberies in return for a cut of the proceeds.
Mark Poulton, Wandsworth's principal officer in charge of security, denied Day's claim that he had deliberately or inadvertently revealed his identity as an informer.
Day, 31, of Basildon, Essex, had been serving a seven-and-a-half-year sentence for robberies.
He was sentenced to a further six months for a serious assault on a fellow prisoner convicted of a sex offence.
Durham coroner Andrew Tweddle was told Day had served his time in Wandsworth on separate occasions, as well as having spells at Parkhurst, Pentonville, Cardiff, Highdown and finally Frankland.
The Reverend Deacon Peter Heneghan, Wandsworth prison chaplain, said: "When I saw him, he threw himself at me crying like a baby."
It also emerged that Day had been transferred to Frankland Prison against the wishes of his family, who feared he would not get the support he needed. But they had been assured by then governor Philip Reilly that he would be kept in a safe environment.
The hearing continues.

This is the North East

Hanged prisoner was told of £20,000 price on his head

by Gavin Engelbrecht 

A prisoner who was assured he would be given special protection because he was known as an informer was called a "grass" within 20 minutes of arriving at a North-East prison, an inquest was told yesterday.
Paul Day, later found hanged in his cell, endured verbal abuse and had urine thrown at him when he was admitted to Durham's Frankland Prison.
He was also told there was a price on his head.
His mother, Pauline Day, said she felt she was misled by a governor at Wandsworth Prison into believing her son would be placed in a witness protection unit at Frankland.
But Frankland did not have such a unit, and Day was placed in segregation.
An inquest hearing at Chester-le-Street Magistrates' Court was told that Day, 31, of Basildon, had been involved in a number of climbing incidents, suicide attempts and dirty protests. He was serving a seven-and-a-half year sentence for robbery - and a further six months for an assault on a fellow inmate.
An emotional Mrs Day read out a letter her son had written to her after his arrival at Frankland in August, 2002.
He said: "Mum, I was on the bus on the way down and I really thought this was a fresh start for me. Instead, I was walking in the exercise yard and, within 20 minutes, I had prisoners throwing urine on me ... and was being called a grass.
"They screamed at me and told me that I had a £20,000 bounty on my head.
"Once back in my cell, I couldn't stop crying for hours and I was without a radio to drown out the abuse."
He was found hanged in October, 2002.
Douglas Graham, then a governor at Frankland, said he learned Day was already being transported from Wandsworth, without him having been given prior warning.
He said: "I was annoyed, because it is important to have a grip on who is coming into the establishment, especially with a prisoner identified as presenting problems."
Coroner Andrew Tweddle was also told that, during a 17-day period at Highdown Prison, Day had attempted suicide three times.
On one occasion, he had jumped from a 25ft drop with a ligature around his neck.
Warders were able to lift his weight and cut him down.
The case continues.

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