The only way out is in a bodybag': The final days of IPP prisoner Taylor Atkinson

"But under the terms of his Imprisonment for Public Protection (IPP) sentence, he was repeatedly denied his freedom - at times because the despair of not having a release date had left his mental health on a knife edge. The only glimpse of the outside world he had seen - a series of day releases in the months before his death - had been snatched away weeks earlier after a prison officer had briefly lost sight of him in a busy shopping centre."

"He had a plan and I knew for a fact it was going to happen, his partner Sam Faulder, a fellow prisoner, said of their final conversation. She begged prison officers to place Taylor, a 50-year-old transgender prisoner, on constant watch, or allow her to share a cell with him, but noone listened. I couldn't understand it, she added. I am not someone that talks to officers. I was crying and beggingno one was listening. I couldn't understand, still don't understand."

"Three days later, Taylor bled to death in his cell at HMP Eastwood Park, a struggling women's prison in south Gloucestershire. Although he identified as a man, he believed he was the last IPP prisoner in the women's estate to have never been released. This week, an inquest jury recorded Taylor's death as a suicide and concluded that the IPP sentence was likely the most significant factor contributing to the feelings of despair and mental exhaustion that led to his actions on 9 July 2022."

Taylor Atkinson planned and carried out a fatal self-injury after years on an Imprisonment for Public Protection (IPP) sentence that extended incarceration far beyond his original term. Repeated denials of release and the uncertainty of no release date severely affected his mental health. Day releases shortly before his death were revoked after an officer briefly lost sight of him. His partner and fellow prisoner pleaded with staff for constant supervision or shared accommodation but received no effective response. Three days after the pleas, he bled to death in his cell at HMP Eastwood Park. An inquest recorded suicide and found the IPP sentence a likely major factor; constant supervision may have prevented the death.

Read at www.independent.co.uk