A YOUNG Black mother whose baby died after she gave birth alone in a prison cell is calling for pregnant women to sparred jail.

Aisha Cleary was born and died in HMP Bronzefield. during the night of 26 September 2019, and was not found until the following morning.

Earlier this year, an inquest found that serious operational and systemic failings contributed to her death.

This week, the senior coroner in Surrey announced that he will not be making any recommendations to prevent future deaths, following the death of baby Aisha Cleary.

Responding to the announcement, Aisha’s mother, Rianna Cleary said: “I have lost Aisha forever, so the most important thing is that no pregnant woman ever goes through what I did again.

“I understand that the Senior Coroner is not making a Preventing Future Deaths Report because of all the changes that have been made since Aisha died. But when it comes to prison, what’s written on a piece of paper is never what happens in practice. The way the prisons are run, it is all about power and control. They will never be caring places.

“Prison officers do not always follow policy – look what happened to me when I pressed my cell bell twice – nobody came. And I still don’t know whether the prison officer who refused me medical help has been sacked.

“The system is cruel and will never be a safe place to have a baby. Everybody now accepts that all pregnancies in prison are high risk, so why was I sent there? This is why I now support the campaigns of Level Up and No Births Behind Bars to stop sending pregnant women to prison.”

Since Aisha’s death, NHS England and the MOJ have accepted that all pregnancies in prison are “high risk”, echoing the finding of the Prisons and Probation Ombudsman, Sue McAllister.
 
Concluding the month-long inquest into Aisha’s death the coroner stated that Aisha “arrived into the world in the most harrowing of circumstances” given that her mother, Rianna Cleary – a Black teenage care leaver – was left to give birth alone in a prison cell without any care or assistance, despite asking for help and pressing her cell bell twice.
 
After an inquest, coroners can issue recommendations on the Prevention of Future Deaths (PFDs) to organisations, local authorities, government agencies or person in order to try and stop similar deaths.

The senior coroner stated that while the evidence he received at the inquest hearing did give rise to concerns on his part that circumstances creating a risk of other deaths may still continue, his concerns had now been addressed by the prison and other interested parties.

However, some campaigners do not believe this is enough.

Selen Cavcav, Senior Caseworker at INQUEST, said: “We are disappointed that the coroner has decided not to issue a Prevention of Future Deaths report following this inquest which exposed one of the most damning failures in our prison system.

“We have no faith that the changes which have been made by the prison will save further lives. There is a depressingly huge gap between policy and what happens behind closed doors.  

There is no reliable system for checking how these changes are implemented and essentially no proper accountability when policies and procedures are completely ignored like they were when Rianna was pregnant in prison.

“INQUEST knows this only too well. Prison is a disproportionate, inappropriate, and dangerous response to women in conflict with the law, let alone those who are pregnant. 

“We must urgently dismantle women’s prisons and redirect resources to holistic, gender responsive community services. Only then can we end the deaths of women and their babies in prison.”