A REPORT into the death of a Chinese prisoner who killed himself at Bullingdon Prison while awaiting trial found that despite being on suicide watch he was unable to phone his family for two weeks.
Upon his arrival at the prison on April 29, 2010 the unnamed 29-year-old spoke no English and another Chinese prisoner acted as an interpreter, alerting staff to the man’s worrying mental state.
A report by the Prisons and Probation Ombudsman said: “Despite a history of mental health treatment in China, no mental health referral was made.”
Other Chinese prisoners were used as interpreters in the man’s first routine healthscreen with a prison nurse and again an informal arrangement was made using fellow prisoners to interpret when he said that he felt depressed.
Criticising the use of other prisoners as interpreters in confidential situations, the report’s author Thea Walton, acting deputy ombudsman, said: “I think that confidential meetings about risk or healthcare matters should be conducted in private, regardless of the first language of a prisoner.”
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