Barbara Davidson reports on the wall of silence closing in around Lewes Prison following the recent deaths of two inmates at the Victorian jail.

HUGH Talmage is not your typical campaigner for prison reform.

A semi-retired landscape gardener, the closest the 62-year-old had ever come to hearing the clang of the prison gates was when he was fined £60 for a minor driving offence in Eastbourne.

But that changed when a close friend and workmate was jailed for burglary.

Astonished by what he describes as the subhuman conditions he saw on his increasingly-frequent visits inside, he has become a vociferous campaigner for the rights of prisoners trapped behind the walls of stone - and silence.

He is terrified his pal will become the latest addition to the prison's unenviable suicide statistics: Three dead in 2001, two in February 2002.

Poor conditions at the crumbling prison are not new but the public usually hears only the scale of the deprivation thanks to annual reports from the independent Board of Visitors watchdog.

This year's report, due out next month, has been foreshadowed by a letter written to prisons minister Beverley Hughes asking what has happened to thousands of pounds of grant aid set aside for vital improvements.

Mr Talmage, who lives in Woodingdean, said: "My friend has been in a cell in the segregation wing for about 30 days, locked up sometimes for 23 hours a day.

"It is so damp water is dripping off the walls, it is cold and dark with an open toilet. The presence of damp and decay is noticeable everywhere. He has to eat and sleep in there.

"The conditions are simply subhuman - almost below animal standards.

"I understand the majority of people are inside to be punished but there is no way they will ever learn to get back on to the straight and narrow if they are being dehumanised."

He says the psychological damage from the conditions is pushing his friend, and others, over the edge, with many already on the brink.

Mr Talmage said: "He has lacerated himself because of the conditions he is having to live in. The other day he slashed his neck.

"He writes to me all the time and it makes very sad reading. He is reduced to begging for help."

Mr Talmage has written to the Prison Inspectorate, the area manager for prisoners and the director general for prisons and is drafting a letter to send to prisons minister Beverley Hughes.

He said: "I want to know exactly what has been done to address the issues raised in the Board of Visitors' report of March 2001 and in the Prison Inspectors' report of March 2000.

"If you try to ask anyone at the prison you are met with a wall of silence.

"You can't speak to anyone unless you go to the Prison Service and that is such a vast organisation, one department has no idea what the other is doing."

The two most recent reports, while praising the staff for their work in difficult circumstances, were damning about the building, saying inmates were being forced to live in degrading and inhumane conditions so appalling they could contravene the Human Rights Act.

They led to calls for a major investment programme to improve or knock down the Victorian jail.

The Board of Visitors compared Lewes to a dungeon saying: "It is subterranean with constant damp, very poor natural light, very poor ventilation."

A first night centre has since been opened for new prisoners who then spend a few days in a refurbished induction wing.

But many go on to serve the majority of their sentence amid the horrors of F-wing whose appalling conditions have been blamed for contributing to the suicides behind bars.

It is up to the governor of each prison to decide how to handle relations with the world outside but, despite the growing concern following the latest deaths, governor Paul Carroll has laid down a strict diktat banning communication between staff and any members of the Press.

Instead all inquiries must be dealt with by the army of Press officers based at the Prison Service's HQ in Whitehall.

It took almost two weeks for The Argus to be informed of the death of Nariman Tahamasbi, 27, who was found hanging in his cell on February 20. Tahamasbi was serving six months for fraud and deception.

It took five days for the prison to release details of how Charles Wolfe, 28, of Bishop Lane, Henfield, was found hanging from a knotted sheet while on remand for a manslaughter charge.

A spokeswoman told The Argus neither of the recent deaths had taken place on the segregation wing.

She said: "Since the Board of Visitors' report there have been major changes in the segregation wing."

But she admitted the £450,000 improvements to the health care centre had not yet been started and would not get under way until August.

She said: "There's always an internal prison service investigation and a coroner's inquest when there is a death in custody."

Mr Talmage received a boost to his campaign this week when he received a letter of support from Stephen Shaw, Ombudsman for the Prison and Probation Service for England and Wales.

Mr Shaw said he visited Lewes prison last year and shared Mr Talmage's assessment of "the wholly unacceptable state of the segregation unit".

He promised Mr Talmage he would write to director general of the Prison Service Martin Narey to raise his concerns.