A prisoner who set himself alight in his cell after serving 12 years for stealing a mobile phone under an indefinite jail term is being denied his right to healthcare, his family has warned.
Thomas White has developed severe mental health problems in prison as he languishes under a since-abolished imprisonment for public protection (IPP) sentence.
Earlier this year, the father of one set himself alight in his cell in desperation as he lost hope of ever being freed.
Two medical reports shared with The Independent this summer laid bare the toll of the devastating jail term on the prisoner, who suffers psychosis and religious delusions, as medics warned his “lengthy incarceration” was creating “impermeable barriers” to his recovery. Both called for him to be moved to a hospital.
White was due to have another key psychiatric assessment earlier this month to decide whether he can be transferred to hospital. But this did not go ahead after the prison did not have enough staff to get him out of his cell for the assessment, his family said.
Now his heartbroken sister Clara White has written to the health secretary Wes Streeting in a desperate appeal for him to intervene and find her brother a hospital bed before he makes another attempt on his own life.
“I have stopped going to see him because it’s too traumatic,” she told The Independent. “He’s dying in front of me. He’s skin and bone.
“I haven’t seen him be treated with dignity once. I just want him treated with some dignity. I just don’t know where else to turn with it. I am being destroyed in the process along with him.”
As well as a suicide attempt and self-harm, White has been hearing voices and suffering regular hallucinations inside Category A HMP Manchester.
Imploring Mr Streeting to intervene before Christmas, Ms White begged: “Parliament will go on recess soon. How can MPs go and sit round a table and eat Christmas dinner knowing that other people’s families are dying?
“I have got to ride Christmas through praying that something doesn’t happen to him. Move him before Christmas and show some mercy to me and my mum.”
IPP jail terms were introduced under New Labour in 2005 and saw offenders given a minimum tariff but no maximum. They were scrapped in 2012 over human rights concerns but not for people already detained – leaving almost 2,700 prisoners like White languishing in prison with no release date.
The sentences have been branded “psychological torture” by a UN human rights expert after at least 90 IPP prisoners have taken their own lives.
An assessment by an independent consultant forensic psychiatrist in August found 40-year-old White, who has paranoid schizophrenia, has been suffering panic attacks and pacing in his cell as he struggles with psychosis and religious delusions.
“Mr White expressed feeling depressed about his long imprisonment without a set release date, citing this as the reason for his previous suicide attempt,” Dr Deepu Thomas said, concluding he should be moved to a medium secure unit.
In a previous report last year, the same psychiatrist said that the indefinite jail term, which had a two-year minimum tariff, was the “probable cause” of his poor mental health.
Labour peer Lord Woodley this month called for the government not to be on the “wrong side of history” as he called for IPP prisoners to be resentenced in a private member’s bill.
However, prisons minister and Labour peer James Timpson has insisted the government will not support any form of resentencing, despite at least 700 IPP prisoners having served more than 10 years beyond their minimum term.
The Ministry of Justice and the Department of Health and Social Care cannot comment on medical matters relating to individuals.
If you are experiencing feelings of distress, or are struggling to cope, you can speak to the Samaritans, in confidence, on 116 123 (UK and ROI), email jo@samaritans.org, or visit the Samaritans website to find details of your nearest branch.
