CAMPAIGNERS calling for reform in how the Prison Service and courts deal with young, female prisoners held a protest outside Brockhill Prison on Friday.

And the campaigners managed to stop a prison van carrying prisoners from entering the confines before the vehicle was finally allowed inside. Police were called but no arrests were made.

The protest was led by Pauline Campbell whose daughter, Sarah, was found unconscious in her cell at HM Prison and Young Offenders Institute Styal, Cheshire, last year.

She was taken from prison in an ambulance but died several hours later without regaining consciousness.

Joining Mrs Campbell in the protest were two former women prisoners, a mother of a teenager who died in custody last year and a representative from Miscarriages of Justice UK (MOJUK).

Recently a 19-year-old remand prisoner, Kathryn Jones, was found hanged in her cell at Brockhill.

Mrs Campbell said: "Kathryn was the 13th female prisoner to die this year.

"Like my daughter, she was just a teenager when she died and clearly very vulnerable. I certainly hope her parents are not made to wait two years until her inquest takes place, in the way that I have been kept waiting.

"Such a delay is inexcusable when someone dies at the hands of the State.

"In addition, Katherine was a remand inmate when she died, her trial had not taken place.

"That a 19 year old has died at the hands of the State before her trial had even taken place is a shocking indictment of the level of care afforded to vulnerable youngsters."

Since April, there has been a change in the way deaths in custody are investigated.

They are now investigated by the Prisons Ombudsman Stephen Shaw and not by a governor from another prison.