Play keeps spotlight on jail where 'they don't seem to care'

"I felt anger, disappointment, I even felt some sadness."

Linda Stokes is talking about her feelings at reading about the conditions inside HMP Woodhill in Milton Keynes.

Her son Chris Carpenter, from Reading, took his own life at the prison in 2018 when she believes living inside was "horrendous".

In the last three years, the jail has twice more been put into special measures and Linda, 67, believes those reports show nothing has changed.

Chris's story is one of three told in a play about men who died at the prison.

First staged in 2023, it is now being put on again after the latest highly critical inspection report.

Chris was serving a 40-month sentence when he died in 2018, aged 34.

He had previously been diagnosed with "severe mental health problems" and had several stays in hospital, Linda says.

In 2015, police were called to a block of flats and found him in a corridor with a knife and he was charged with possession of a bladed article and threatening to kill.

"Chris needed help, not punishment. He was given a prison sentence that turned into a death sentence," Linda says.

At the inquest into his death, a jury found there was "unsatisfactory risk management of a very vulnerable prisoner".

The conclusion found failures in areas including co-ordinating concerns; documenting and sharing information; and carrying out searches of cells.

In 2018, the year Chris died, the death rate at Woodhill was described by inspectors as "staggering".

In 2023, the first production of Woodhill was performed, designed to draw attention to conditions inside the prison.

Shortly afterwards, the jail was placed into special measures.

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The production is now returning for a run at the Edinburgh Festival and a nationwide tour after another highly critical report in March.

Levels of violence, drug use and self-harm were found to be among the highest in the prison estate.

"It just seems like they don't care," Linda says.

After the inquest, Linda says she was "very lost" and left asking "Is that it? Is there nothing else?".

She was then introduced to the campaigning theatre group Lung, based in Barnsley.

Its production, titled Woodhill, uses pre-recorded voices of actors reading the words of family members while dancers perform on stage.

Linda and members of other Woodhill families have had regular meetings with the producers before and since the first tour.

She says she was "amazed" when she first saw the production.

In one powerful scene, the words of Linda and her daughter Carole recount a phone call from Chris the day before he died.

"Chris told me he was scared... Chris told me he was being threatened," reverberates around a rehearsal room in east London where the cast are preparing.

"It is a very hard watch for me. It brings it all back," Linda says later, fighting away tears.

In the phone call, Chris asked Linda to call the prison to raise concerns.

Linda says she did, but no record of it could be found when the time came for the inquest.

Chris's story sits alongside those of Kevin Scarlett and Stephen Farrar.

Director and writer Matt Woodhead describes it as "devastating" that the performance was designed to encourage change, yet three years on from the first run the prison is again in special measures.

"Grief when it is channelled into rage can be a very powerful thing and it can be a radical act," he says.

Miah Robinson is a returning cast member and believes "this is not something that is just going to be fixed".

"I am not looking at it like, 'Change hasn't been done.'

"I'm looking at it as an opportunity to regurgitate a message that needs to be heard."

The Prison Service says its thoughts remain with the loved ones of these prisoners.

"HMP Woodhill has taken action to reduce self-inflicted deaths through improving staff training and care plans," a spokesperson says.

"Communication between prison officers and healthcare staff has also been strengthened, helping to share concerns across teams to support vulnerable prisoners."

Eight years on from Chris's death, having read report after report criticising the conditions in the prison, Linda still believes change is possible.

"I always have hope that there will be change," she says. "I hope it happens while my eyes are still open, while I am still here."

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