As violence, drug use and suicide at HMP Nottingham reached shocking new levels, the prison became a symbol of a system crumbling into crisis
When Denise Ireson’s neighbour heard her son was going to prison, he issued a warning: just pray Ben isn’t sent to Nottingham. The neighbour’s relative worked in prisons, and he knew HMP Nottingham had a reputation for drugs, violence and suicide. This wasn’t exactly classified information. Since 2014, a series of alarming headlines had emerged. A prisoner bit off and, it’s believed, swallowed an officer’s right earlobe. An 80-year-old prisoner was throttled to death with a sheet while watching snooker in his cell. Another man was asphyxiated on his second day in the prison. His cellmate stabbed him with plastic cutlery, strangled him with a ligature made from shoelaces and put a plastic bag over his head. According to Steven Ramsell, a local criminal defence lawyer, conditions became so bad that some of his clients refused to board the bus that took them to the prison. “Nobody wanted to be in a prison,” Ramsell said. But more than anything, “nobody wanted to be in Nottingham prison”.
On 16 October 2018, Ben Ireson – a slender 31-year-old with a history of anxiety – arrived at Nottingham to await sentencing for a domestic violence charge. Allocated to the B wing, he called his mother six or seven times a day from the phone in his cell. On 22 October, Ben informed a staff member that he was under threat from other prisoners and that his cell had been robbed three times – teabags, biscuits and his crucifix were missing. That evening, he told his mother he’d attempted suicide and that he intended to try again. Denise yelled at him to hold out. At the time, she was caring for her grandson who had brain cancer. She spent the evenings alone in her flat worrying that Ben wouldn’t survive, either.
