Prison inmate from Plymouth in coma after four start trashing cell

“thankyou all who wrote gd comments u knw who u r every1 else dnt knw **** all so gt a life aint u gt nuttin betta to do than chat **** about sum1 who mite die n u dnt even knw oh well”

“before everyone assumes that excessive force was used perhaps you should read this:

Girl dies after pillow fight with friend
By Nick Britten 12:01AM GMT 01 Jan 2003
A 12-year-old girl died after hitting her head during a pillow fight with her best friend. Jessica Smith made a playful lunge with the pillow but missed and banged her head on a bedstead.She went to bed soon after but was later taken to hospital after being sick. Doctors discovered a large blood clot, caused by a burst artery in her brain.

Her mother, Diane, 38, said: "I got a call to say she had banged her head when they were pillow-fighting and they had taken her to hospital with concussion.

"When I got there she was already in a coma and the doctors said they would have to operate. They showed us the scans and said she had suffered a massive bleed."

SO IF SOMEONE CAN DIE FROM A PILLOW FIGHT PERAHPS OFFICERS SHOULD BE USING FEATHER DUSTERS!!!”

“READING A MAJORITY OF THESE COMMENTS HAS INFURIATED ME, I FEEL SORRY FOR THE OFFICERS AT EXETER AND THE FAMILY OF ASHLEY FOR HAVING TO READ THE DISGUSTING COMMENTS!!!
1)how must the officers feel after being wrongly accused by those who know nothing? purely for doing there job - because he has a head injury does not mean that excess force was used - only the amount of force necessary to restrain him!
2) where does it state there was 4 in a cell?? - there was obviously 4 seperate cells each with 4 prisoners smashing up. and people are forgetting that the other 3 prisoners must have been "safely" removed - showing that the techniques do in fact work.
3) where does it state that ashley was left for 4 hrs - i quote ""At 9pm on Monday, four prisoners at HMP Exeter started damaging their cells..At 1am one of the prisoners collapsed" - so from 9pm- 1am four removals took place, and if the prisoner collapsed this shows that he was conscious so no neglect occured!
4) camera's are used to film the incident - no hiding blame there! so certain people need to stop accuoseg the innocent...HOWEVER
those who have slated ashley without knowing him, need to spare a thought for his family and friends that do. Only ashley is to blame for this, but NO-ONE deserves to be fighting for their life,
this is a very unfortunate incident which has affected many people!! Also those who have said he deserves this only give society the impression that officers are as ruthless, brutal and ignorant as the comments that have been made, when in fact there are many decent officers who want to look after them with humanity and "help" them to lead law-abiding lives!”

“Can I just ask where it clearly states that this lad was left for four hours with a head injury??

From the story above the smash-up started at 9pm. Poor reporting and journalism then states that "a specialist team intervened and quickly brought the situation under control". This reads that the team went in quickly (i.e. straight away), which I can assure you all would not have happened. Before any cell entry there must be a risk assessment and strategy brief, a duty governor would have been called back into the establishment, as well as time to assemble the team and equip them with appropriate protective clothing.

The "quickly" would refer to the time taken to resolve the incident from the time the team entered the cell. As already stated the team who undertook this would normally be highly trained officers who are trained and tested on their ability to carry out suck tasks on a regular basis. As also stated the team would consist of 3 officers, one specifically tasked with protecting the head, and two to control and restrain. he would, indeed, be given every opportunity to exit the cell under his own steam and would have been informed that the team would remove him if he remained non-compliant. Incidentally, prisoners who cause damage to their cells are removed from the cell for their own safety, due to the danger of broken objects, (smashed sink, toilet, damaged electrics etc). The incident would also have been captured on video camera, and there may well have been an impartial observer present, as is often the case.

Although this really is a tragic situation fro any person to find themselves in, convicted criminal or not, and I have every sympathy for him and his family, I feel it is very harsh to instantly assume the officers used overly aggressive tacticts. The whole system is designed, tested and evaluated to prevent this sort of injury and personally I find just about every comment on this story disgracefull. None of you have any right to blame the injured party or the officers for what happened that night without being in possession of the full facts. Even then, it is virtually impossible to know exactly what happened, who is to say the person didn't headbut the wall as part of his protest for example?

For the herald to allow this thread to continue is also a disgrace and all those stating that any person, convicted or not, deserves to end up in hospital fighting for their life, should be thoroughly ashamed of themselves and their views.

I wish the young person all the best and a speedy recovery, but please don't make yourselves the judge and jury and apportion blame, that is why we have a criminal justice system...”

“Keep reading. this is not a subject for discussion. But will become a Public Enquiry into the Prison Service and the Restraint methods used.”

“Ben - I didn't twist words I just stated facts from the story and your comments.

For a C & R team to go in to a cell to retain order they will use the minimum amount of force to restrain the offender. One officer will hold the head at all times to ensure safety when the offender is restrained. If in restraining him he banged his head whilst taking him to the floor then that would be unfortunate but these things by their very nature are not easy.

I hope his health improves but if you get involved in violent situations then you can't be surprised at getting hurt.”

“I am looking at the report again and cant see where it says the injury was caused by the Prison Officers Damaging the cell to attract a team of officers could be actions intended to cover up for all kinds of misdeeds that could have been carried out by the other prisoners on this lad whose friends have already admitted was weak and probably ripe for bullying - prison is a hard place.

Some years ago i recall an incident where a young lad was killed when he fell in front of a bus during a disturbance only for it to be proven that he was dead hlf an hour or so before that. Nobody who wasnt in that cell knows what really happened and i wouldnt trust any of them to tell the truth,

However I hope the lad recovers”

“Andy,

I applaud you on your ability to twist words. And as you said you don't know what really happened, so you don't know if he was trashing his cell. Which even if he was he hasn't been convicted for it so I wouldn't count it amongst his offences just yet.

What I was actually trying to say was that to be in the state he is in now, it would have needed excessive force. I didn't defend his actions that put him in prison and I don't defend him for trashing his cell. I was questioning the prison service's idea of "restraining" that left Ashley in this condition.

And yes I am connected to him but even if I wasn't I would still show a bit of compassion for his family.”

“7 stone weakling, add a bit of hootch , a few drugs , a few so called mates cheering him on and then you have a 7 stone nutter willing to take on the world and will use anything in that smashed up cell as a weapon , chair leg , table leg , sink in broken sharp pieces used as a knife .......i do hope Ashley makes a full recovery and then he might have time to reflect on the errors of his ways and take responability for his actions”

“So Ben...All his crimes he's been involved in are non violent? So smashing his cell up was non-violent...no,I don't think so.

So I suppose it's the system's fault and the officers deliberately beat him up?

No not really was it.

Funny how all those connected to him are defending him. Now there's a surprise!

The facts will come out then we will see what happened to this 'peaceful' man.”