Between August 2002 and August 2003 there were six deaths at Styal Prison. Five of the women who died had been in Styal for less than a month. Anne Owers, Chief Inspector for Prisons, made an unannounced inspection of Styal in January 2004 after which she made over 170 recommendations for improvement. On 9 May 2006 she published her report on this inspection and told Woman's Hour where changes still needed to be made.
A day after Anne Owers spoke to us 42-year-old mother of two Valerie Hayes was found hanged in her cell at Styal. She had been addicted to drugs, and had spent a decade in and out of psychiatric hospitals. Baroness Scotland, Minister of State for Criminal Justice, joins Martha Kearney to explain how yet another death in custody has been allowed to take place in a prison and how she intends to improve conditions for women in prison in Britain.
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