Rebecca Smith

Rebecca Mary Rose Smith, 40, was a funny and generous loving daughter and mother of two who lived in Bath. She was very bright and a quick learner.

Rebecca, who was mixed-race, had been managing mental ill health for years. In 2003, she was placed in Eastwood Park Prison in Gloucestershire. A year into her sentence she was moved to Buckely Hall Prison, much further away from her family in Rochdale.

Despite Rebecca’s history of self-harm, she was held in 'normal' location at Buckley Hall. In 2004, just three weeks after her transfer, Rebecca was found unresponsive in her cell. She died an hour later at Rochdale Infirmary.

Her parents, Peter and Phyllis Smith, waited five years for an inquest. The jury ruled that Rebecca died a self-inflicted death while enduring a mental health condition.

Coroner Simon Nelson wrote to the Ministry of Justice demanding procedural changes to ensure that individual needs were considered, particularly when transferring people from one prison to another. During the inquest, Rebecca’s parents highlighted that she hated changes in routine, and that she was distressed by moving to Buckley Hall.  

The prisons watchdog criticised Buckley Hall prison for not being adequately prepared following its conversion from a men’s to a women’s prison in 2002.