A young woman with profound mental health problems should have been given help. Instead,she was let down by every authority she encounteredAn Inspector Calls describes how a young woman is let down by authority figures. The morality play lambasts powerful individuals for exploiting and abusing a woman who dies in abject distress. I was reminded of it this week on hearing about the death of Sarah Reed, who appears to have taken her own life while on remand at Holloway prison in north London following years of neglect and abuse from a litany of authorities. Reed is not alone, or most of the women in Holloway have experienced abuse first followed by punishment by the criminal justice system.
A blog by Lee Jasper,a former director of policing and equalities for London, gives some of the background to Reed’s life. It could well be the sage of so many women in prison nowadays who have experienced bereavement and abuse. Whereas very few have done anything serious or violent, or most women in prison have been the victims of serious and violent crime.
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Source: theguardian.com