Inquiry into the death of inmate at Addiewell Prison

Feb 18 2010 by Debbie Hall, West Lothian Courier

A Fatal Accident Inquiry into the suicide of an inmate at Addiewell prison concluded that his death could not have been prevented by staff.

However, the sheriff did highlight the “inexperience” of staff at the privately run Addiewell Prison after the death of drug courier Richard Crompton.

Crompton was serving a five-year sentence when he was discovered hanging in his cell on January 19 last year.

His death sparked a fatal accident inquiry to determine whether the prison, run by private company Kalyx, was at fault.

Sheriff Mhari Mactaggart concluded there was “nothing to suggest” that the level of training given to Kalyx staff contributed to the death, and ruled that “no reasonable precautions” could have prevented him from committing suicide.

But she did say in her report that the recruitment of “inexperienced staff may have been part of the ethos of Kalyx” and added that many lacked experience of working with inmates.

She continued: “There was clear evidence at the inquiry that the majority of staff recruited by Kaylx were inexperienced within the prison service.”

The 41-year-old from Deans in Livingston had been assessed on his arrival at jail by a staff member with just one hour's mental health training.

Prison custody officer Emma Dyet, who carried out the risk assessment on Mr Crompton upon his arrival, had “expressed concern that she had only received one hour of mental health training” as part of the jail's nine-week training programme.

However, she concluded Crompton had seemed “jokey and chatty” and that she would not have assessed him as presenting “any form of risk”.

Crompton was also seen by Dr Mohammed Khan, a locum GP who prescribed him with the anti-depressant Mirtazipine, which the inmate had previously been prescribed, to help him settle into the new prison.

However, on January 15, Crompton refused to take the drug, but Dr Khan did not assess Mr Crompton as being at risk.

Sheriff Mactaggart wrote that recruiting inexperienced staff “may have been part of the ethos of Kalyx, in an attempt to move away from the old style of prisoner management”.

However, she said there were “no defects in any system of working” which contributed to the death after reviewing its risk assessment procedures.

The sheriff said Kalyx had accepted the need to provide extra training for staff in dealing with mental health issues following Crompton’s death.

He had been jailed in October 2008 after police caught him with £320,000 of cocaine and had been transferred to the jail 10 days before his death, having previously been an inmate in Barlinnie where he had also been assessed as “no apparent risk”.

Addiewell prison has not been far from the headlines and the most recent incident saw rioting last month that left two guards injured.

Since opening in 2008, the jail has been at the centre of repeated reports of violence and allegations of being too comfortable.

A Kalyx spokeswoman said: “The report found that there was nothing to suggest that the level of training given to Kalyx staff in any way contributed to the death of Mr Crompton.”