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Addict's 'inhuman treatment' leads to raft of improvements
THE family of a drug addict who died in prison say they have finally got justice after the Government spent £150m on treatment in jails.
Judith McGlinchey, jailed for four months in 1998 for shoplifting to feed her heroin addiction, was subjected to "inhuman and degrading treatment", the European Court of Human Rights ruled.
Her parents Hilary and Tony Davenport, of Gipton, Leeds, wanted her to go on a rehabilitation programme but their wishes were ignored.
At New Hall Prison in Wakefield Ms McGlinchey started vomiting violently and was only taken to hospital after a week. She died in Pinderfields Hospital three weeks later.
Her parents, along with their solicitor Keith Lomax of Leeds firm Davies, Gore, Lomax, have been fighting to change the system.
In 2003, after the European court ruling, the Government compensated her family. Now the Council of Europe has closed her case because of the 150m worth of changes the Government has made.
They include:
Transfer of prison health service to the NHS;
40m more for prison health services;
Drug rehabilitation programmes in 103 prisons;
Short-term treatment programmes which are already showing benefits.
Mrs Davenport said: "I do feel we have got some justice for Judith.
"I think the changes are brilliant and that's why we did it.
"We pushed it as far as we could go – that's really all we could do."
Mr Davenport said they had campaigned so other families of those addicted to drugs did not go through the same experience.
He said: "There was nothing at all in prison for them."
Ms McGlinchey's daughter Natalie named her baby – now 19 months old – Saffron Judith after the grandma she will never know.
After Ms McGlinchey was imprisoned she lost 20 per cent of her body weight in five days and coughed up dried blood.
Although she was seen by a doctor, none was available over the weekend.
She was finally taken to Pinderfields Hospital where she died, aged 30, on January 3, 1999.
Her parents have brought up two of her four children – Natalie, 17, and Andrew, 22, who now lives in Spain.
The changes resulting from Ms McGlinchey's death were warmly welcomed by Mr Lomax.
He said: "I have never forgotten that moment and the tragedy of her death and the misery of that time for her and for her family.
"Now, the Council of Europe has decided to close the case, satisfied that the Government has complied with its obligations and taken measures that 'will prevent new, similar violations'.
"The extent of those measures is impressive."
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