Marlon Hamer

Marlon Hamer is a former inmate of HMP Manchester

Deaths in custody review should look at all prisoners, take it from an ex-con
When I was inside, I witnessed the desperation that leads to suicide among inmates of all ages, not just 18- to 24-year-olds
The Guardian, Friday 7 February 2014 1

The government has announced that it will hold an independent review into the deaths of 18- to 24-year-olds in custody. I can tell them a few things about deaths in custody, deaths of young and old.

Two weeks ago I walked out of Manchester prison, having served a 10-month sentence for car theft. I was housed on I wing, a detox unit. I wasn't detoxing – I was there because the jail is overcrowded. I befriended a guy, a 32-year-old homeless man called Michael Delaney. I had seen him begging in the city centre a few times and had slipped him a few bob from time to time. Michael was deaf and dumb. He was in prison for breaching an asbo, forbidding him to enter the city centre – but that was where he lived.

One Friday in June last year, Michael was locked in his cell next door to me. After 10pm I heard a commotion at his door. From first hearing the noise to the screws opening the door seemed to take about 20 minutes. I heard staff screaming and heard one screw shouting: "Get the kit." I knew they meant the suicide kit. By now, the wing had woken up and cons were making a noise. Then I heard an officer say: "It's too late, he's gone."

The next day we learned Michael had passed away. I was disgusted to hear staff making light of the death. It was as if they had found a mouse under the serving hatch. Because Michael was homeless and had no family, nobody seemed to care.

Michael's cellmate, Lee, told me what had happened. He had dropped off to sleep after lock-up. At about 10.15pm, he woke and saw Michael hanging from the top rail of the double bunk. Lee pressed the alarm bell and tried to hold Michael up, but he says he knew he was dead.

Manchester is a category-A prison and doors cannot be opened at night until a dog handler is present, so the door was not opened immediately. As the door was opened, Lee noticed a small piece of cannabis had fallen on the floor. He thought Michael must have "cheeked it up" and it had dropped when he died. Lee handed it to officers, saying Michael had dropped it. Lee was left on his own in the cell where Michael died. The next day, he was placed on report for possession of drugs.

I was the wing painter. A week after Michael died they asked me to whitewash his cell, saying they had to brighten it up for the next person.

According to the charity Inquest, nine men have taken their own lives at Manchester prison since 2010. It doesn't surprise me.

While I'm glad the government will review the deaths of 18- to 24-year-olds, what about kids under 18? The real kids? When I was 16, in the late 1980s, I served 18 months in Hindley young offender institution. I particularly remember one young lad from Wigan who killed himself. He was about 15. I had heard him being taunted by other lads and heard him crying in his cell on the reception wing. His new pair of trainers had been "taxed" (he'd been knocked out and they were taken from him). It was a violent place. Staff knew this was going on but turned a blind eye. It suited them to know who could look after themselves, and the hard lads always seemed to get the good jobs. While I was there, three young lads hanged themselves.

Suicides are still happening at institutions like Hindley. It seems to me that nothing much has changed. But the government is not looking into such deaths. Jails like Manchester and Hindley are run like conveyor belts, different bodies coming and going all the time. They ask people if they are likely to self-harm. Nearly everyone says no. In the eyes of the system, we are all the same, losers and dead legs.