A Manchester Coroner has written of her concerns over a prisoner who died in Forest Bank prison after having a cardiac arrest
Bronia Hartley Assistant Coroner in Manchester West has written to Sodexo Justice Services who run the prison over the death of 65 year old Ian William Deavall,who was remanded in custody to the prison in January 2023
The inquest into his death last year found that died as a consequence of a naturally occurring cardiac arrest but there was an admitted failure to arrange for Mr Deavall to be sent to hospital for assessment between 20 and 24 January 2023
He was housed on the induction wing throughout his time at the prison and shared a cell.
Both the Deceased and his cell mate were believed to be at risk from other prisoners and were classed as vulnerable prisoners (‘VPs’) accordingly.
The inquest heard evidence that both VPs and non-VPs are housed on the induction wing and that the recognised risk to VP prisoners when co-located 
with non-VP prisoners is managed by operating two separate regimes to avoid the two demographics coming into contact with one another.
His cell mate pressed the emergency cell bell whereupon a non-VP prisoner (‘Prisoner A’), who was unlocked and conversing with two other prisoners on the landing adjacent to the Deceased’s cell, deactivated the cell bell on the panel outside the cell before resuming his conversation with the other prisoners. After approximately 1 minute Prisoner A walked down to the wing office and alerted officers inside, following which a medical emergency response was initiated.
The inquest heard evidence that when an emergency cell bell in the induction wing at HMP Forest Bank is deactivated on the panel outside the cell (i) this cancels the alert in the wing office; (ii) the only means by which staff can ascertain in which exact cell the emergency cell bell has been activated (the light on the panel outside the cell) goes off.
