A PRISON reform campaigner was arrested outside a Durham jail as she staged the latest in a series of protests about inmate deaths.

Pauline Campbell, 56, of Malpas, Cheshire, was seized for allegedly causing a breach of the peace at Low Newton Prison and Young Offenders' Institute last Friday when she stood in front of a prison van. She was taken to the city's police station, but was released without charge.

Mrs Campbell, a trustee of the Howard League for Penal Reform, has been arrested eight times during previous demonstrations for trying to stop prison vehicles.

Her 18-year-old daughter, Sarah, died of a prescription drug overdose in Styal Prison, Cheshire, last year after starting a three-year sentence for manslaughter.

Mrs Campbell believes that too many women are being locked up and not receiving the care they need when they could be punished in the community.

Convicted drug dealer Rebecca Turner, 22, of York, was recently found hanging in her cell at Low Newton, which has just opened a new reception centre to ease new inmates into prison life. She had recently started a 27-month term.

Her family, including her mother, Janet, went to the jail to support Mrs Campbell.

Her sister, Claire Wade, who described the new centre as 'having quite nice rooms,' said her sister was popular and had many friends.

Ms Wade said there should have been more checks on her sister because "all women are vulnerable and have low self-esteem because they are taken from their family and friends.''

Mrs Campbell said afterwards it was her eighth arrest and that she was facing two separate trials on charges of obstructing the highway at other prisons. "While women prisoners continue to die I will continue to do demonstrate.''

Low Newton governor Dave Thompson has said the death, the jail's first in seven years, had hit staff and other prisoners hard.