Tributes paid as prison reform campaigner dies by daughter’s grave

May 16 2008 by Vicky Anderson, Liverpool Daily Post

PRISONS campaigner Pauline Campbell, whose daughter died of a drug overdose in a Cheshire prison, was found dead yesterday near the entrance to the graveyard where her child was buried.

Prison reform groups paid tribute to Mrs Campbell as an “inspiring campaigner” and a “human being of indescribable bravery”.

The 60-year-old, from Whitchurch, Shropshire, was arrested 15 times for protesting outside jails across the country where women inmates had died of apparent suicide.

Cheshire Police are investigating the circumstances of her death close to her daughter’s grave in Malpas, Cheshire.

Before her death, she spoke to the Daily Post’s LDP Legal page just this week about the quashing of her latest arrest and her concerns about the legal aid system.

Mrs Campbell’s 18-year-old daughter, Sarah, died of a drug overdose at Styal prison, in January, 2003, the third of six women to die at the jail in 12 months.

Prison Reform Trust director Juliet Lyon said: “Pauline Campbell campaigned bravely and tirelessly.

“Her death makes me so sad. She tried so hard to make a difference.”

Frances Crook, director of the Howard League for Penal Reform, said: “Pauline Campbell was a loving mother, a generous-hearted woman and a human being of indescribable bravery.

“Her courageous voice will live on, as it must.”