As these were handed over I heard one officer say: `Another one bites the dust'
As these were handed over, I heard one officer say: `Another one bites the dust'. After that there was no contact at all with the prison."A record 82 people, almost all men, killed themselves in prisons in England and Wales last year, and the rate has remained at the same level in the early part of this year.Half of those who died last year were being held on remand. The Chief Inspector said the rate of remand prisoners taking their own lives was 490 per 100,000 - 28 times higher than the national suicide rate for men.He pointed out that 73 per cent of those who died were being held in "local" prisons, which are the most overcrowded in the jail system. Local prisons are used to hold people who are waiting to go to court or who have recently been sentenced and are due to be allocated to a prison.. THE FORMER Chilean dictator, General Augusto Pinochet, was taken to hospital yesterday from the Surrey mansion where he has been under armed police guard. A source close the general, who is fighting extradition to Spain, said he was taken to hospital for "regular tests". "There is no reason to believe there is anything serious," the source said "His doctor just felt the need for some tests. He is 83 years old," he added.General Pinochet is due in the High Court in London next week when he will seek permission to apply for judicial review of Home Secretary Jack Straw's decision to allow his extradition.At a court hearing earlier this year, the Chilean senator's lawyers quashed rumours he was planning to plead he was too ill to face extradition proceedings.Mr Straw, in his ruling last month, said: "It does not appear that the senator is unfit to stand trial.".
FREED PAEDOPHILES are to be offered their own apartments inside prisons in an attempt to protect them from being hounded by the public on their release. The scheme, to be piloted at Nottingham Prison, is an attempt to shield paedophiles, often "named and shamed" by national and local media, from parents around the country who have objected to resettlement of notorious offenders in their communities. The Prison Service, with the backing of the Home Office, instead will offer serious sex offenders the opportunity to live as free men inside specially converted flats within prison grounds.Although most of the details are still being worked on, it is believed the men will have their own keys and be able to come and go as they please, subject to a special contract or tenancy agreement, which entails supervision by designated prison officers.The project will initially entail the conversion of offices at Nottingham jail into three ground floor flats complete with televisions, radios, kitchens and shared bathrooms.The ex-prisoners will not be allowed guests and details are still being worked on as to how much freedom they will be allowed. Prison Service officials said that the paramount concern was security and that steps would be taken to prevent the men bringing in proscribed or illegal material such as pornography or drugs. One of the advantages of the scheme would be the relative ease of monitoring the paedophiles by probation officers and the access to support services they would have to prevent them re- offending.The scheme has been approved by the Home Secretary, Jack Straw, and Martin Narey, head of the Prison Service. The cost of converting the flats has not been disclosed, nor has the Prison Service said how much rent the freed men will be liable to pay.A Prison Service spokesman said last night: "Office accommodation at HMP Nottingham is in the process of being converted into living accommodation available to house high-risk offenders and ex-offenders; anyone who may pose a risk to the community."The Prison Service last night declined to say who would be the first tenants but Nottingham Prison, just 150 yards from a residential area with a school, is believed to be gearing up to receive Lennie Smith a member of the Robert Oliver child sex murder gang. Smith is due to arrive next month after release on licence from Wakefield Prison where he has served six years of a 10-year sentence for attacks on a six-year-old boy..
THE MADNESS which afflicted King George III and probably helped weaken the European monarchy could be treatable with food supplements, according to new research. A treatment based on cow enzymes could have assisted the king, who was wracked by the rare disease of the central nervous system, porphyria. Analysis by a British historian and a molecular biologist has found that like many members of royal families, George III - who ruled 1760-1820 - inherited a genetic mutation which gave him porphyria.Among its symptoms are hypersensitivity to light and bouts of mental illness caused by the build-up of toxic chemicals.John Rohl, professor of history at the University of Sussex, said when George III came to power at the age of 22, he intended to rule for as long as he could. "But the crisis caused by his illness in 1788 not only weakened his power but almost led to his being replaced by his son," he said. The in-breeding of royal families in Europe meant that the genetic mutation causing porphyria, which normally occurs in about one in 10,000 people, was more common.In Purple Secret, published this week, Professor Rohl and Martin Warren, of University College, London, use genetic techniques on exhumed remains to trace the disease to many royal families almost to the present day - including Queen Victoria and the last tsarina of Russia. "The monarchy must have been considerably weakened by this disease. But it's impossible to know quite what its full effects were," Professor Rohl said.