Young offenders: Health on the inside

Susan was imprisoned when she was 16 for tying up a young woman andcutting her with a knife. It was said she enjoyed it. Earlier in herlife, Susan's mother had tried to kill her with an axe and went on tomurder her father in front of her. Susan's mental health problems werewell known to services. Yet she received no psychiatric care while shewas locked up and little before it.

Over the next two years, often spent in solitary confinement and onsuicide watch, Susan ripped open wounds, sprayed blood round her cell'set herself and her cell alight, and injured three prison staff. She wastransferred to hospital and back 20 times. It was only when these visitsbecame almost daily - raising doctors' fears that the next cut would bethe last - that a legal charity was able to stop the authorities fromreturning her to prison. A court injunction meant Susan was cared for ata secure hospital, where five months earlier a psychiatrist haddiscussed her suitability for secure care.