The Howard League for Penal Reform made the attack as it launched acampaign for a public inquiry into the treatment of a severely mentallyill 19-year-old from Crewe.
The girl, who was admitted to hospital more than 20 times for"blood-letting" incidents and attempting to hang herself, was only movedout of solitary confinement to a psychiatric unit after the prisonreform charity took legal action.
The inquiry would be the first into how prisons deal with young peoplewith mental illness.
In a letter to home secretary Charles Clarke calling for the inquiry,the charity's director Frances Crook, criticised "the failure of thestate to respond appropriately to the serious mental health problems ourclient has had throughout her life".
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