A PRISONER took her own life at a jail near York, three days after staff were warned she was having suicidal thoughts and launched a care planning process to support her, an inquest was told.

Deborah Sonia Clayton died, aged 46, at Askham Grange Prison in Askham Richard on August 19 last year, after staff had found her hanging in her room and tried in vain to save her life through Cardio Pulmonary Resuscitation.(CPR)

An inquest jury concluded at the end of a three-day hearing in Harrogate that her death was suicide.

Members of the jury had been told that officers at the open jail for women had been 'shocked,' 'surprised' and 'devastated' by her death.

Three days before she died, prison officers had opened an ACCT (Assessment, Care in Custody and Teamwork), the care planning process for prisoners identified as being at risk of suicide or self-harm, after Deborah had disclosed she had suicidal thoughts.

She was placed under regular observations, with staff checking she was all right three times during the night, and she told prison officer Shirley Seaman on August 18 that she felt much better and had no suicidal thoughts, and the officer saw no signs of self harm.

Prison officer Seaman said her reaction when she heard Deborah had died was one of shock.

Deborah, who had been jailed for ten years in 2016, was nearing the end of her sentence after having transferred to Askham Grange from a higher security jail at Styal in Cheshire.

Graham Holgate, a prison officer who has since retired, said Deborah had been 'very nervous' about leaving prison, having been away from her family for so long. "She was scared of failure," he said.

He said the Covid pandemic had restricted the number of activities and visits to people at the prison.

He said that he was 'devastated' by Deborah's death.

Deborah's stepfather Billy Parkinson said the family did not know why she had taken her own life but thought there were several possible factors.

He said she had worked as a chapel orderly at Styal but because of the Covid lockdown, there had not been enough to keep her occupied at Askham Grange.

He said that with her release from prison pending, there was a fear of letting her family down, and her step sister had also just died.

Nurse Catherine Peach said Deborah had said during a review that the ACCT processes had caused her more issues, with prison officers' torches disturbing her sleep when they were checking on her during the night.

The inquest was told that toxicology tests had shown that Deborah was not under the influence of alcohol or other drugs when she died.

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