Three inmates died at Birmingham Prison before riots
Three inmates died inside Birmingham Prison in the month leading up to the recent riot - the worst in any UK prison in more than 20 years.
The first prisoner died on November 7, a second was taken to hospital on December 7, but died two days later, and a third died inside the prison on December 8.
Some posed for mobile phone pictures, wearing the riot control gear they had stolen from an office.
In the wake of the trouble more than a third of all prisoners were moved out to more than 30 different prisons across the country.
At the height of the December 16 riot prisoners took control of wings, started fires, destroyed records and damaged equipment and locks.
All three deaths are currently subject to inquests and investigations from the Prison and Probation Ombudsman (PPO) but it is understood one death was self-inflicted.
G4S, which operates the prison, confirmed the deaths but refused to comment further, saying all healthcare is delivered inside by the NHS.A spokeswoman for the Birmingham and Solihull Mental Health Trust said:
The PPO launched four fatal incident investigations at Birmingham in 2015/16, of which two were natural, one was self-inflicted and one was non-natural. They also investigated four deaths in 2014/15, of which three were from natural causes and one was self-inflicted.
One of those that died in 2015 was Dean Boland who took a cocktail of drugs while on the ‘detox wing’.
In November it was revealed that the 30-year-old had taken banned legal high Black Mamba and five other drugs that had not been prescribed to him in April 2015.
An official report into his death, which was published in November, raised serious concerns about prescribed drugs being exchanged between prisoners and the availability of illicit substances.
Andrew Neilson, Director of Campaigns at the Howard League for Penal Reform, said:
Chief Constable David Thompson spoke about the great pride he felt in his officers who responded December’s riot recently. In a blog he said: