Report of the Inquiry into the circumstances of the Death of Bernard ...

Reports from HM Prisons Inspectorate show that K wing was a grim place in 1998. It had
small cells designed for one prisoner but occupied by two, with unscreened toilets. 1 For
most K wing prisoners there was no work or education. Men spent long hours locked up,
or out on the landings with no structured occupation, watched from a distance by staff
who were often wary and hostile. Sonny Lodge wrote that being on K wing was “doing
his head in”. It was not a healthy environment for a young man who had recently selfharmed;
a young man who, his sister said, “needed help more than punishment”.
Sonny Lodge believed he was victimised for the alleged assault on a prison officer. The
inquiry found no evidence of any concerted victimisation but some foundation for his
sense of injustice. In the last week of Mr Lodge’s life, when he learned he would not be
released, his girlfriend was alarmed about his state of mind and telephoned the prison. A
series of people who did not know Sonny Lodge talked to him. Each decided he was not
going to harm himself. Each made their judgment in good faith but information was not
brought together. If it had been, Mr Lodge might have been protected.
The day before Mr Lodge died, he had two altercations with members of staff. He was
charged with attempted assault and placed in cellular confinement by a governor who
did not know about his history of self-harm or about his girlfriend’s warnings.
The prison sentence he received in 1998 might have been a turning point for good in
Sonny Lodge’s life. He had a poor start in life and a 14 year drug habit but, at the age of
28, he had an important relationship, a new home to go to with his girlfriend, and sisters
who cared about him. He was sensitive to his failings as a father and was able to
imagine a different kind of life. Prison meant enforced withdrawal from drugs. It might
have been a chance to turn his life around. It would have been an uphill struggle, and he
needed all the help he could get.
Mr Lodge was one of many short sentence prisoners. Like many other short sentence
prisoners he had complex needs. Doctors said he needed psychiatric follow-up,
counselling and support to stay off drugs. None of this was provided. If short spells in
prison for relatively minor offenders are to have any reformative value they should be
focussed from day one on preparing for release. That means engaging with prisoners as
individuals, helping with practical problems, supporting family links, putting in place
support to help them stay off drugs, providing appropriate mental health care, and
1 Double occupancy remains the norm. The toilets now have a privacy curtain.
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