HMP Pentonville handed my son a death sentence

Image source, Saroj Chumber Image caption, An inquest found multiple failures at the prison had led to Gareth Chumber-Kelly's death By Connie Bowker London Published 1 hour ago A mother whose son killed himself in HMP Pentonville having spent only four days on remand there is calling for the troubled north London prison to be shut down. Gareth Chumber-Kelly, aged 33 and a father-of-three, died in July 2023. In January, an inquest found multiple serious failures by the prison contributed to his death. His mother, Saroj Chumber, said: "As soon as he stepped through those doors, he was sentenced to death and all of his human rights were taken away from him. He went in alive and came out in a body bag." The Ministry of Justice (MOJ) said the prison had "already taken action to strengthen safety and support for prisoners at risk of self-harm". Image source, Saroj Chumber Image caption, Aged 19, Gareth was hit by a bus and suffered a life changing brain injury. He then had numerous mental health problems and a heroin addiction, his mother said The inquest heard that when Gareth arrived at the prison, he was sent in with a suicide warning, which noted his history of self-harm and suicide attempts, and that he had told the court he would take his own life if he was sent to prison. But this information was not acted on. His mother said the inquest was told that important paperwork had been lost, and that this was not uncommon at HMP Pentonville. "It led to my son's death ultimately, and he was not given the care and the safeguarding that he needed. He was very at risk," she said. The lost paperwork was only one of a catalogue of prison failings found at the inquest: the prison also failed to provide Gareth with mental health support or a welfare call - to which all prisoners are entitled to within their first 24 hours of incarceration, according to prison guidelines. After self-harming on his second day at Pentonville, Gareth was still not referred to mental health services but was placed under hourly observations. The inquest found these observations were not always carried out, despite having been recorded as having been done. Image source, Saroj Chumber Image caption, Saroj said Gareth was resourceful and the "kind of clever that could fix a car after watching a 10-minute YouTube tutorial" On the morning of his death, only four prison officers were working on Gareth's wing instead of nine. As a result, the wing was placed on lockdown. One prison officer admitted to falsifying the entry which recorded the last time that Gareth was seen alive by prison staff. The coroner also heard how the first two officers on the scene "panicked" and failed to provide any form of basic life support. Following his death, Saroj saw the cell where he died. "It was extremely small, completely inhumane for two men to be sharing," she said. "At the end of the bunkbeds there was a piece of cardboard, separating the toilet. Gareth never sat still, he would have found that abso