HMP Woodhill: Call for urgent review refused after inmate suicide

Mark Culverhouse was detained unlawfully when he took his own life

The government has refused a coroner's call for an urgent review after the death of an inmate detained unlawfully.

Mark Culverhouse, 29, died in April 2019, but should not have been in custody at HMP Woodhill, Milton Keynes, at the time he took his own life.

A coroner asked Lord Chancellor Robert Buckland MP for a review "in order to prevent similar deaths".

But in response, the Prison Service said: "We do not consider it possible to comply with the recommendation."

Mr Culverhouse was released from Peterborough Prison on licence on 12 April 2019 but was recalled on Thursday 18 April, the start of the Easter bank holiday weekend, after threatening to harm himself.

According to deputy prison and probation ombudsman (PPO) Elizabeth Moody, he should have been immediately released due to unused days on remand, but the calculation of when he should be released was not carried out until staff returned on 23 April.

Mark Culverhouse was an inmate at HMP Woodhill

Ms Moody said Mr Culverhouse was taken to the segregation unit on 23 April after fighting with another inmate, and less than an hour later was found unresponsive.

He died the following day in hospital and an inquest jury concluded he died from suicide.

Tom Osborne, senior coroner for Milton Keynes, wrote to Mr Buckland, stating he felt change was required "to ensure that the calculation... is made prior to the decision to recall being taken".

In response, Phil Copple, director general of prisons, said: "The calculation of release dates is complex and must only be undertaken by staff who are trained in the subject.

"Those staff are located in the Prison Service and only operate during normal office hours between Monday and Friday.

"Calculations carried out by untrained staff would present the risk of incorrect information being communicated to the prisoner and possibility of a release in error, hence potentially putting the public at risk."

Mr Copple added that until the licence revocation document is issued, "it is not possible to calculate the balance of the sentence that remains to be served".

An alert flag has also been added to the National Offender Management Information System (NOMIS) to warn staff when there is unspent remand time on a prisoner's record which may cause a reduction in custody time or an immediate release.

But Frances Crook, chief executive of the Howard League for Penal Reform, said: "Why is the Probation Service recalling people to prison but apparently not competent or able to judge what they are doing is lawful, whether this person will be lawfully detained?"

She said there appeared to be a "gap" between the Probation and Prison Services, adding: "The issue here is that thousands of people are recalled to prison each year.

"How many of them are sent back to prison unlawfully?"

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