Coroner calls on jail to act on unusual phone activity

Martin Collins made repeated attempts to call his partner on his in-cell phone

A coroner has called for a prison to be able to monitor unusual phone activity after an inmate tried to reach his partner 61 times in the hours before he took his own life.

Martin Collins, 66, was found hanged in his cell at HMP Highpoint, near Haverhill, Suffolk, on 25 November 2023.

An inquest jury concluded last month that "his inability to get through to his partner on the telephone that day" had possibly contributed to his death.

In a prevention of future deaths report, Suffolk coroner Peter Taheri said the lack of a system to automatically flag call volumes "may lead to missed opportunities to identify risk triggers and so missed opportunities to intervene and prevent suicide".

"The available telephone system for prisoners does not presently have the capability, in an automated manner, to recognise high or unusual volumes of calls by prisoners – and then to notify prison staff or healthcare in the event of such a pattern," his report added.

Mr Collins, an inmate at HMP Highpoint in Suffolk, tried to reach his partner 61 times in the hours before he took his own life, an inquest heard

The inquest, which concluded on 12 September, also heard there was "a lack of information-sharing and understanding" among staff on the "magnitude" of Collins' mental health history.

A misunderstanding by Collins on his "sentence progression" and the prison's failure to follow up on his need to be seen by the mental health team may also have contributed to his death, the inquest found.

It also heard concerns were raised in March 2023 about the number of calls to his partner, and that a negative phone call would lead to attempts to self-harm.

According to the report, his partner gave evidence that it was "a clear sign that he was becoming less stable in mental health" when he "compulsively" phoned her from his in-cell phone.

"He could be very demanding and regularly repeat-dialled me over 100 times non-stop," the report stated, quoting her evidence.

"I was surprised that the prison service had not identified the volume of unanswered calls being made."

The governor of HMP Highpoint told the hearing prison staff could check each call log, but there was no automated way of recognising a pattern of high call volumes.

Writing to the minister of state for prisons, Mr Taheri said that while the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) might not be able to alter the telephone system's software, it could seek the required changes with the technology provider.

A MoJ spokesperson said: "We will carefully consider the coroner's findings and will respond to the report in due course."