A MOTHER SPEAKS

"There were around 600 deaths in custody in England and Wales last year, a third of them suicides, according to a report published today. The study, by the Forum for Preventing Deaths in Custody, found there were 500 to 600 deaths in custody each year, some of which were preventable. ...In 2004-05 - the most recent year with a full breakdown of the cause of deaths in custody - 127 of the 590 deaths in custody were suicides. ..The report also raised concerns about the number of mentally ill people in custody, and suggested they would be better looked after in psychiatric care... Pauline Campbell, whose daughter Sarah died in custody, told the BBC that prisons were being "overwhelmed" by high numbers of vulnerable people who needed care, not punishment "They're being used as social dustbins for people who are mentally ill, drug and alcohol dependents, the homeless and so on," she said. (BBC News, 21 September)
If you cannot produce surplus value for the owning class you are thrown into the social dustbin. Mrs Campbell has got it right. RD