A PRISONER has been found dead at a North-East jail.

William Hunter, 25, from The Mill, in Easington, County Durham, was found hanged in his cell in Durham Prison's health centre last Monday by his cellmate.

The jail has been at the centre of concerns about the number of inmates taking their lives - there were five suicides last year and six in 2002 - and the Prison Service recently announced its women's wing will close following criticism of conditions by the chief inspector of prisons.

The prison will also lose its category A status for male prisoners, those sentenced for the most serious offences.

Hunter was serving two-and-a-half years after being convicted last October at Durham Crown Court of supplying or being involved in supplying heroin in east Durham.

North Durham Coroner Andrew Tweddle has opened and adjourned an inquest into the death. A full hearing before a jury, required by law for deaths in custody, will probably be held later in the year.

The Prisons Ombudsman is also to investigate.

In early May, Sharon Miller, 45, from Bath, Somerset, who was serving ten years for arson, was found hanged in her cell.

Her death prompted campaigner Pauline Campbell, of Cheshire, whose daughter died in Styal Jail, Cheshire, to stage a protest outside the jail against custodial sentences given to female offenders and the conditions they face in many prisons