Inquest To Explore Extraordinary Lack Of Response To Ill Health Of Teenager Jordan Hullock At Hmp Doncaster

Before HM Coroner Neil Cameron
Doncaster Coroner’s Court, Crown Court building,

College Road, Doncaster DN1 3HS 

Opens Monday 24 June 2019 - scheduled for up to three weeks

Jordan Hullock, a 19 year old from Leeds, died in 2015 whilst a prisoner at HMP Doncaster, which is run by the private company Serco. Jordan had physical health issues and ultimately died from meningitis. He spent days in a condition so bad that staff and the prison’s Independent Monitoring Board raised concerns about his treatment to senior managers, but it appears little action was taken. The inquest into his death opens on Monday 24 June.

Jordan was remanded to HMP Doncaster on 1 June 2015. At the time of Jordan’s death, the healthcare at the prison was being provided by Nottinghamshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust. He had a heart condition, initially overlooked by the prison, although documents confirming this arrived with him from police custody. It was not long before he began to complain that he was feeling unwell. Jordan later stopped eating, drinking and communicating, and his condition deteriorated to the point where he became dehydrated, incontinent and immobile – on several occasions falling to the floor of his cell or elsewhere.

Evidence suggests that healthcare staff at the prison responded to his condition as one of mental ill health, with little consideration of his physical symptoms, and his elevated temperature and low blood pressure was not acted upon. A week passed before he was seen by a GP and then urgently transferred to hospital on 24 June 2015. Upon arrival he was placed in an induced coma and died at Royal Hallamshire Hospital six days later, on 30 June 2015.

Jordan’s family describe him as funny and daft, a typical 19 year old with a caring and loving nature. He had never been in prison before. When Jordan stopped communicating, his mother emailed and phoned the prison with her concerns, but to no avail. Jordan’s family hope the inquest will consider the extraordinary lack of response to Jordan’s presentation over such a long period of time and the devastating consequences.

ENDS

NOTES TO EDITORS
For further information, interview requests and to note your interest, please contact INQUEST Communications on 020 7263 1111 or [email protected]; or solicitor Ruth Bundey on 0113 2007403.

INQUEST has been working with the family of Jordan Hullock since July 2018. The family is represented by INQUEST Lawyers Group member Ruth Bundey from Harrison Bundey.

Other Interested persons represented are Serco Ltd, Nottinghamshire Healthcare NHS Trust, the Nursing and Midwifery Council and individual healthcare staff.

‘Prisoners are dying because of poor healthcare’, Media Release, 1 November 2018

Parliament’s Health and Social Care committee echoed INQUEST’s concerns on failing healthcare in prisons, in their report into prison healthcare. INQUEST submitted written evidence to the inquiry, which details numerous so called ‘natural cause’ deaths in prisons, which often relate to serious failings by prison and healthcare staff. 

HMP & YOI Doncaster:

• HMP & YOI Doncaster was inspected by HM Inspectorate of Prisons shortly after Jordan’s death (from 5–16 October 2015). The critical report found outcomes for prisoners in terms of both safety and respect were poor. It also noted that the prison had not rigorously implemented recommendations following formal Prison and Probation Ombudsman investigations into recent deaths.
• The most recent inspection, published in on 12 October 2017 found outcomes for safety were still not sufficiently good, though there had been improvements more broadly.
• Since January 2015 there have been 20 deaths in HMP Doncaster, five of which were self-inflicted, one a homicide, and 14 non-self-inflicted. The majority of non-self-inflicted deaths were of men over 60 years old, except Jordan and a man in his 30s.
• In October 2017, the inquest into the self-inflicted death of Gerard Scahill in HMP Doncaster found multiple failings by the prison caused his death on 22 April 2016. See the Media Relase.