Thousands take to the streets to protest over deaths in police custody

UFFC 2022 - Marchers set off from Trafalgar Square
Image Credit Deborah Coles / INQUEST

source: The Independent
published: 30 October 2022

Thousands of people rallied around bereaved families whose loved ones have died in custody as they marched to Downing Street demanding an urgent meeting with the Prime Minister.

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The relatives of Chris Kaba, Oladeji Omishore, Matthew Leahy, Jack Susianta and Leon Patterson signed a letter addressed to Rishi Sunak which was delivered to Number 10 on Saturday.

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Grieving families demand meeting with Nicola Sturgeon

Familes demand meeting with Nicola Sturgeon
Image Credit @ Justice for Allan Marshall

source: Scottish Daily Express
published: 30 October 2022

The {grieving} families of two men who died in police custody have delivered a letter to the First Minister’s residence in Edinburgh, as they requested a meeting with her and the Justice Secretary.

Allan Marshall and Sheku Bayoh both died in custody in 2015. Mr Marshall, 30, was being held on remand at HMP Edinburgh in March 2015 when he suffered a cardiac arrest during a lengthy struggle with staff.

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No births behind bars: The scandal of imprisoning pregnant women

Woman in Prisonsource: Counterfire
published: 31 March 2022

Over the past three years, two babies born to women serving custodial sentences in prison have died. In 2019, a woman gave birth alone in a prison cell at HMP Bronzefield in Surrey, Europe’s largest women’s prison, without access to a midwife or any maternity care.

The baby was born in the early hours of the morning but by the time prison staff visited the woman’s cell the baby was unresponsive. The Prisons and Probation Ombudsman initially refused to investigate, claiming that such an investigation was not within their remit. Nine months later, another baby was stillborn at HMP Styal, to a woman who was unaware she was pregnant.

Questions are being raised once again over why pregnant women are incarcerated in the first place. Women make up about 5% of the prison population, with the vast majority – some 82% of the 7,745 women incarcerated in 2018 – sentenced for petty crimes and non-violent offences such as shoplifting.

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