A series of great events you should attend...

Can I ask that you share these events ? we need to support each other by promoting each other on social media. We all know the mainstream media his nit intreated in this stuff, so you are our only support and we love you for that. Many thanks...

Sarah Reed Campaign for Justice: An avoidable death.

PRESS RELEASE FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

20th July 2017.

Justice for Sarah Reed begins with health and prison services being held accountable for deaths in custody.
#SarahRead #SayHerName #BlackLivesMatter.

Background

Sarah Reed, a young black woman with a history of mental illness, detained on remand in a single occupancy cell in the healthcare unit of Holloway Women's Prison, was found dead on 11^th January 2016. The prison has since been closed. Sarah’s illness was precipitated by the premature death of her six-month-old daughter in 2003, when she and her partner were dispatched from a children's hospice with their deceased baby wrapped in a quilt to find an undertaker. Sarah's mental health deteriorated as a consequence of this trauma. She was also the victim of a vicious assault by a Metropolitan Police Officer, PC James Kiddie in 2012. He was subsequently charged, convicted and dismissed from the police force. This incident further exacerbated Sarah's condition, as did her arrest for an alleged assault whilst defending herself against a sexual attacker in a secure mental health unit.  

The inquest into Sarah Reed’s sudden death was held at City of London Coroners Court. It started on Tuesday, 4^th July and concluded on Thursday, 20^th July 2017. The jury's verdict found that The Inner London Crown Court’s processes of obtaining psychiatric medical reports were not sufficiently timely. The jury found the delay “particularly difficult to understand”. If a timely Fitness to Plead Assessment had been performed as requested by the court, then Sarah Reed would not have suffered a mental health crisis in HMP Holloway and would have received appropriate treatment within a mental health hospital. The jury concluded this delay significantly contributed to her subsequent death. The jury also found that the Assessment, Care in Custody and Teamwork (ACCT) review delays and failures were contributory factors to Sarah’s death, in particular the reduction of observations despite her worsening psychotic condition. They found the reduction of Sarah’s anti-psychotic medication to have been appropriate initially, but strongly criticised the subsequent failure to consider safer alternatives. The jury also found that HMP Holloway staff failed to respond to a request from Dr Timms to review Sarah’s anti-psychotic medication in a timely manner. These failures left Sarah in a distressed state without appropriate treatment. Finally, the jury considered HMP Holloway’s inexplicable decision to cancel Sarah’s visits with family and friends especially detrimental.

Sarah’s legal team was exceptional, however the search for the truth is often frustrated by a lack of resources for families in terms of legal and evidential expertise. We believe the inquest evidence presented, outlining the ways in which Sarah’s behaviour was assessed and managed, the withdrawing of her medication, and the punishments and segregation to which she was subjected are highly disturbing. It paints a distressing picture of the inhumane way a Black woman with mental illness was treated in prison. Sarah’s case, like the cases of Dean Saunders and David 'Rocky' Bennett before her, have highlighted systemic failings of care for people with mental illness and institutional racism within prisons.

The Sarah Reed Campaign for Justice has been supported by a number of individuals, groups and organisations, in particular the social movement Blaksox, Women In Prison, Black Activists Rising Against Cuts (BARAC) UK, and Gender, Education and Enterprise Development for Africa (GEEDA). 

As far as the Campaign and Sarah’s family are concerned, the specific facts relating to Sarah’s death still remain largely unexplained.

We make the following urgent demands:

1.     The Government should commit to ensuring nobody with severe mental illness should be placed in a police or prison cells.

2.     Urgent modernisation and reform of the Coroners’ inquest courts processes to give greater equity and justice to victims’ relatives. 

3.     That Coroners’ inquests recommendations need to be mandatory and enforced by law.

4.     In the event a prisoner is identified as having a mental health crisis requiring transfer to hospital, that this takes place within two (2) hours and treated as an emergency, as is the case with a physical medical crisis.

5.     That no prisoner identified as mentally ill and/or on suicide watch is screened off as punishment, isolating them from human contact and cutting off visibility when they most need it.

This inquest has left serious questions unanswered:

1.     How did Sarah, a woman in poor physical health commit suicide by strangling herself and maintain the pressure past the point of unconsciousness whilst lying face up on a bed, within a ten-minute window?

2.     Why were key reports such as Fitness to Plead and important psychiatric assessment reports delayed, causing significant harm to Sarah?

3.     Why did Holloway Prison psychiatrist, Dr Darren Bull determine that Sarah was not psychotic, despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary?

4.     Why was there a substantive and critical delay in transferring Sarah from Holloway to hospital once a decision was made that she was in need of urgent medical treatment?

Donna McKoy, Chair of the Sarah Reed Campaign for Justice said, “Sarah would be alive today had the Coroners' inquest recommendations been considered mandatory and been backed by the force of law.”

Kate Paradine, CEO of Women in Prison asked, “’What was she even doing in prison in the first place?’ This is the question we at the charity Women in Prison hear most often whenever a woman dies in prison. In 2016, 22 women died in prison with 12 of these taking their own lives. Tragically, their stories are remarkably similar - histories of trauma, abuse, mental ill health and self-harm; often in prison on remand or sentenced for non-violent crimes (84% of all prison sentences for women) – mostly for theft like shoplifting. …The inquest into [Sarah’s] death tells the story of a completely broken system.”  

Patricia Lamour MBE of GEEDA pointed out that “Sarah Reed was remanded in custody for the sole purpose of a psychiatric report to assess her fitness to plea. The inordinate delay in processing these reports was a material factor in the circumstances surrounding Sarah's death. No woman, no mother, in fact nobody suffering from mental illness should be detained in either a prison or a police cell.”

Sarah Reed Campaign member Claudia Manchanda said, "I sat through the inquest and heard several examples of what appeared to be evidence of perjury and poor practice by a range of statutory agencies. I think that the evidence given to this inquest should be the basis of charges of perjury, internal disciplinary measures and dismissals, where appropriate."

Zita Holbourne, Sarah Reed Campaign Trade Union liaison officer and Chair of BARAC UK, said that "the gross injustices Sarah experienced, leading to her unexpected death have been of great concern to the trade union movement and, in recognition of the fact that Sarah died because she was black, a woman and disabled due to her mental ill-health, four emergency motions have been carried at the TUC Black Workers, Women & Disabled Workers conferences. The evidence heard at the inquest leaves more questions unanswered. Sarah's family deserves to know the truth."

Deborah Coles, Director of INQUEST stated: “Sarah Reed was an extremely vulnerable black woman with a long history of mental ill health. …. The state’s responsibility for deaths goes beyond the prison walls and extends to failures in mental health and substance abuse provision, sentencing policies and the failure to implement the Corston report and invest in alternatives to custody.”

Viv Ahmun of Blaksox called on the Home Secretary, Amber Rudd, to publish the long overdue report into Black deaths in custody saying, "It's high time the Home Secretary addressed the deepening anxieties of victims and the wider public about the growing number of controversial black deaths in custody. Sarah Reed is just one of many and it is vital that lessons are learned and urgent reform implemented as a matter of priority."

Lee Jasper said, “The horrific treatment of Sarah Reed whilst on remand in HMP Holloway constitutes cruel and unusual punishment of a young black woman suffering mental ill health. The jury’s findings identified critical failures by prison and mental health staff that substantively contributed towards the death of Sarah Reed. 

Those agencies and individuals that so drastically, failed Sarah should now be subject to profession disciplinary charges and investigations. Those who failed Sarah most notably HMP Holloway Psychiatrists, Dr Van Horn, Dr Van Bull and Prison Governor Emily Thomas should be suspended immediately, pending investigation. 

Sarah tried to tell them she needed help. They refused to listed, Her mother was refused visas, even though Sarah was only on remand simply awaiting her fitness to plead report. Both Sarah and her mother begged and pleaded for that help. Sarah was  black, she was a women. She was mentally ill. She was vulnerable. Denied medication. She was in jail. She stood no chance ”

Contact Details:

Lee Jasper 07984 181 797

Zita Holbourne 07711 861 660

Patricia Lamour 07508 950 589

Claudia Manchanda 07947 306609

Links to articles:

 https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/feb/23/sarah-reed-death-custody-paradigm-shift-black-women-blaksox-campaign 

https://www.morningstaronline.co.uk/a-0bf3-Sarah-Reed-was-a-woman,-a-mother-and-a-daughter#.WW90aoHTXqA http://thejusticegap.com/2016/02/sarah-reed-she-needed-care-not-punishment/ 

 https://www.theguardian.com/society/2016/feb/17/sarah-reeds-mother-deaths-in-custody-holloway-prison-mental-health 

A Black Psychiatrist and Sarah Reed. Why do black professional men always fail our black sisters?

#Justice4SarahReed Sarah Reed Urgent Update. Weds 12th July Day 8. 

This is bound to be controversial but personally after what I have seen at the Inquest of Sarah Reed so far, I don’t give a damn I'll see anybody in court.

Let me show how deep institutional racism works in the criminal justice system in the UK.

Sarah Reed was on remand for four months for an alleged assault. She had been on a mental health ward and was molested by an elderly white patient, defended herself and was arrested for assault.

In the days and weeks before her death on January 11th 2015, a white male Deputy Prison Governor concluded that Sarah Reed was psychotic and needed to be removed from Holloway jail segregation unit and taken to hospital.

Dr. Darren Van Bull. Psychiatrist. 

This young black dreadlocks man is Dr Darren Bull. He is a Psychiatrist at Holloway. He sat in on the same meeting as the Deputy Prison Governor. Both were at the same mental health review of Sarah's treatment.

The Deputy Governor was clear and forceful in his view, when he gave evidence at Sarah's Inquest. His professional view was that Sarah was clearly psychotic and needed to be removed from prison asap.  He gave his testimony with clarity and strength.

A note of this review meeting was produced after forensic investigation of the files.

Dr Bull also gave evidence at Sarah's inquest. He stated that in his professional opinion, not only was Sarah not psychotic, but her anti psychotic meds should be reduced, as he suspected she may have been smoking Spice which he says mimics the symptoms of psychosis. He then began to order the reduction of he her anti psychotic meds.

First, how do you get Spice into a prison segregation unit when Sarah was in her cell, 24/7 not allowed even a shower, and on four man unlock with no visitors? Who brought it in, prison officers?

Second, Sarah toxicology report showed she had no illicit drugs in her blood, none.

The result of reducing Sarah's meds was that she becomes viciously tormented in that cell by her own demons. She begged, and begged, to be given her meds back. She was ignored.

We heard at the Inquest how Sarah was consumed by visions, 

She never slept day after day, night after night, she is recorded as having sat on her bunk., rocking back and forth staring at the wall, endlessly repeating a religious chant, begging Christ to release her.

So this house negro is advanced a Spice theory hoping this bullshit will stick with the aim of obscuring his rank in competence, mendacity and complicity with Sarah's death.

Stuck in that cell, 24 hours a day, no medication and plagued by horrendous psychotic hallucinations.

Dr Bulls written report failed to reflect or even account for the Deputy Governors concerns, when asked why his report was the polar opposite of what was actually discussed, he stammered, stumbled and choked and could not provide an adequate explanation or answer.

His report concluded that Sarah was emotionally disturbed but other wise fine, definitely not psychotic and could therefor remain in Holloway segregation unit. Had he concluded differently Sarah would be alive today.

We can shout racism all we like, but this brother came to an Inquest and lied to protect the system, while a white man came and told the truth. Are you feeling this family?

I have never been so ashamed of black men, as I sat there yesterday (11th July 2017) and watched this fool explain how he co signed Sarah's death warrant. The man was arrogant and cocky until he was confronted with the evidence of the Deputy comments, which thank goodness he was not aware of this when he took the stand.

When the inconsistency was raised he crumbled and said that the words were as far as he could recall was best recollection at the time.

Truth is, its obvious he lied. Because this is an Inquest and not a criminal trial, the normal rules of criminal prosecution don't apply and after this fool lied and conspired to obscure the truth, the Coroner refusing to let him be pressed any more, let him leave the stand.

I am viscerally affected, mortified and heart broken and I thought about this  long and hard and I cannot simply let this pass and neither should you.

This man should be treated like the pariah he is. We know his type and we know they will do anything for the white mans shilling. This one was an eager beaver though.. he tried to play smart and got caught out. He may have walked away form the Inquest but let him become a pariah.

He has the blood of Sarah Reed on his hands.

These are the black men who make me weep, wearing his dreadlocks like a cultural badge of honour, worn simply to impress his white upper middle class colleges with his trendy deadlocked multiculturalism. All the while selling out the community under his care.

More too come, but let’s ensure that the everyone knows who Dr Bull is and what he's done. 

https://www.facebook.com/DrDBull/

Black man, victim of vicious racist attack and institutional racism dies.

The Tragic Case of Tatenda Kamasho: Black man victim of vicious racist attack and institutional racism dies a preventable death.

#TatendaKamasho #BlackLivesMatter © Lee Jasper

The reality of the full and nuanced effects of racism on the day-to-day quality of lives of black people in Britain is rarely recognised. The intersection between institutional racism, the criminal justice system, NHS and mental health services has been one of troubling concern for many years.

Cases such as Rocky Bennet, Sean Rigg and Sarah Reed provide tragic testimony to this issue, a matter I’ve written about here, previously. 

The case of 23 year African British born man, Tatenda Kamasho is yet another tragic case.

Tatenda had previously been the victim of vicious racist attack that took place in Northampton in 2012, when aged just 20. Whilst waiting in the queue at the local McDonalds when 18yr old Jordace Sinclair demanded Tatenda stopped talking.

He then physically attacked Tatenda, taking a knife and stabbing him so hard the blade broke. Sinclair then proceeded to viciously batter him and eventually bit a chunk from Tatenda’s cheek.

Following the attack, the cheek wound became increasingly infected turning septic and eventually resulted in Tatenda being induced into a five-day coma.

Once awake, Tatenda’s mental health deteriorated to such an extent that he began to suffer hallucinations and became deeply psychotic. Prior to this had no history of mental illness, nor is here any such history within his family.

The trauma of this racist attack, combined with the septicaemia infection had resulted in a serious deterioration of this young man's mental health.

Over the course of the next four years received treatment for his illness, he and his family were hopeful that he'd make a full recovery.

His parents, mother, Mrs. Praexedis Moyo-Kamasho a Registered Nurse and father, Mr. Cosmas Kamasho a Chartered Surveyor residing in Hanwell, West London, fully supported their son through this difficult time.

Tatenda managed to secure himself a place in a supported living accommodation project in January of this year. He was visiting his family at the weekends and in March was preparing to celebrate Mother's Day at home with the family.

On Saturday, 5th March parents received a phone for from the project saying that Tatenda was physically unwell and that an ambulance had been called. On reporting Tatenda’s symptoms to the operator, the support worker was told that no ambulance was needed and that she should continue to observe his condition.

The parents immediately phoned Tatenda and he reported that he had a sore throat and had not eaten well for four days. When they arrived at the project, they noted that he looked weak and appeared not to be able to swallow properly. He was so unsteady on his feet, that his father had to help him use the bathroom. Once he settled, they bought him some food from a local takeaway and sat as he slowly ate the food.

Failure to act could have cost Tatenda his life

They went home, looking forward to seeing him the next day. On Mothering Sunday, 6th March his parents called Tatenda who did not answer his phone then they called the support workers who told them that his condition had again deteriorated. On attending the project they saw their son in great pain and unable to move.

With the parents in attendance and with Mum being a qualified Nurse backing up her concerns, the support worker tried again to get an ambulance and during the course of this conversation,

Mrs Kamasho intervened and spoke directly to the operator directly.

Intense discussions took place as Mum sought to convince the operator that her son's condition warranted an ambulance and was very serious. The operator took a different view and simply refused to dispatch an ambulance.

After about twenty five minutes of deliberation, and the family reporting more serious symptoms, then and only then did the operator, conceded and agreed to send an emergency mobile paramedic.

Once the emergency paramedic finally arrived, his view was that was there was nothing wrong with Tatenda and that ‘he has a mental health issue, he’s just seeking attention’ When Tatenda heard these comments he requested “Please sir, do not argue with my parents as they are only trying to help me.’ The paramedic then sarcastically replied ‘Look he even talks!’ implying there was nothing wrong with Tatenda.

However once he had performed his medical checks he immediately found that Tatenda’s blood sugar was incredibly high. It was at that point that he called for an ambulance immediately. Once at Ealing Hospital it was clear his condition was life threatening.

Eventually, the hospital stabilised his condition. For a time it appeared as if he was making good progress and at one point he even managed to sit up and eat yoghurt with his mother.

Parents, now somewhat relived and reassured, left him around 10:30pm that night and made their way home. At 4:45am  on the 7^th March 2016 they received a phone call from the hospital stating that his condition had deteriorated. By the time the parents got to the hospital, staff were already trying to revive Tatenda. However at around 6:45am their wonderful son was declared dead.

The family were shocked and devastated. They however are in no doubt that Tatenda’s death was completely avoidable. They believe and I have come to the same conclusion, that had London Ambulance Service (LAS) responded professionally and properly assessed the seriousness of his condition, their son would be alive today.

They believe that NHS LAS operators repeated failure to correctly assess his condition, resulted in tragic delay. His treatment they believe, was informed by a stereotypical view of mental health patients and the fact that Tatenda was a black man, explains the total lack of professionalism and compassion that eventually resulted in a lethal delay in treatment, that contributed to their son's death.

The family are now awaiting pathology reports that will hopefully reveal the cause of death

Mrs. Praexedis Moyo-Kamasho said,

‘My sons death was entirely avoidable.

'As a trained medical professional I was appalled at the blaze and inhumane attitude of the NHS operator and the Paramedic who attended’

Mr. Cosmas Kamasho told me,

‘My son, Tatenda needed urgent medical attention and that was delayed by the incompetence and inhumanity of NHS Operators who consistently denied my son right to treatment and in doing so, grossly aggravated my son’s condition.

We want answers as to the cause of death and a full transcript of all the calls, that were made by the support worker and my wife.

The whole extended family and our friends are in deep shock. All we want is justice for our son and to prevent this from happening to others.”

The family have written to London Ambulance Service and outlining their anger and concerns. They demanded that Tatenda case be independently investigated and that the Ambulance Services be held to account.

The tardy and perfunctory response they received didn’t even offer the family that most basic of courtesies. The letter reproduced here was not even signed by a named individual.

There was neither simple acknowledgement of their son’s death nor an offer of condolence.

This is a shameful response that has simply added to the family’s acute distress.The family reached out to me to call for public support fore their search for answers and help raise awareness that so that it does not continue happening to someone else.

Mrs Pra Moyo-Kamasho is available and keen for press interviews.

.