Sarah Reed

It's with no great pleasure that I sit here and tell The audience a gory and insidious tale A story that's important for all of the victims of jail Who lost their lives while imprisoned in Hell It's clear the system has failed I guess you want me to prove it right? So while I'm letting off steam, I'll give you figures as well In 2016, in England and Wales there were 89 suicides from within a cell That's men, boys, women and girls, taking their lives choosing to die by killing themselves As I describe the life of a particular girl I'd like to think inside your mind There'd be a ringing of bells So, listen The story starts in 2002 The body of a baby girl advancing out of womb Making noise to playing toys Yeah, no doubt she was cute This one must of lived happily we're bound to assume But at six months, her mother uncovered a tragedy Discovered she was suffering from muscular atrophy Despite the love of the family After three months in a hospice She did not live Imagine the actual grief going back to the scene To have your dead baby handed back to you Wrapped in a sheet These kind of memories will never leave the brain And Sarah Reed was mentally changed The day they made her take her baby away From the cemetery and wait, for the undertaker To make a decision 'bout the fate of a Girl who spent nine months in a womb Nine months in her world, Then expelled To a tomb There are cells within our bodies We don't need bodies in our cells. So let me tell you a short story A story of a girl. A girl called Nine year on from 2003 and Sarah Reed Is arrested by the powers that be. Apparently shoplifting but police are not listening Want this Black woman locked in a prison It's this Great British, great City really That's no shock to the system But as it happens though, this anecdote Is horribly different. It ain't pretty When this bait bully, PC James Kiddie Enters the scene Decides it's battering time Drags Miss Reed by the hair Gives her a smack in the eye A few times till she's flattened and lying But doesn't leave it there Brutally, he sat on her spine She's screaming for air And you might think I'm actually lying But don't believe me You can see the PC. On CCTV Distribute these beats to Reed While she pleads to breathe She's centre of a scandal Manhandled by a lethal beast It gets deep. It gets worse Absurder than fiction She's encompassed in an empty world Served a conviction A crumbling Sense of Self Suffering from Mental Health Wondering if there's something or someone That is meant to help her End this Hell she's found in And now she's sectioned Existing without direction The hospital bed she sits in is A picture of depression and oppression It's upsetting, to relay a scene That I guarantee you're not expecting In Maudsley Hospital, and old male patient Walks across the hall, and stops to talk to Reed But she's not a fool She can see in his eyes, he's thinking something horrible Before an exits possible By her ankles he's got her caught His body on top of hers it is pressing He's caressing. Begins molesting Sarah Who is defenceless So she hits him with a fist Her only weapon And when police arrive Yeah, you'll never guess Who they arrested There are cells within our bodies We don't need bodies in our cells So let me tell you a short story A story of a girl. A girl called Despite protests against the arrest Sarah is taken in to custody and Suddenly placed on remand Awaiting trial for Gross Bodily Harm In Holloway Prison with criminals Horror and dark It's not a place, you would lock away A mind that's gone astray Everyday she wakes, and faces the guards Behind these prison gates there isn't space To assimilate a prisoner's heart She prays to god for a visitor fast Who can listen, and comfort her despair In the months that she is there In a prison system that pretends there Isn't any difference between Custody and Care The story is unfinished, and I'd love to leave it there But listen hard There's plenty more to tell 23 hours kept within a cell. Sarah Reed now is desperate in this World In a Christmas card written to her mother reads Happy Christmas Mum. P.S. Get me out of jail And in Holloway, Sarah's a prisoner not a patient When they withdraw her medication They distort her mental state and Now all of these heavy pressures are escalating In her desperation all she thinks of is escape And on the second day of 2016, Her Mother visits Sarah barely musters a whisper She just fidgets Mum begins to cuddle and kiss her Says, Keep your head high In the deep embrace, Sarah leans away And says Bye The last words that her mother heard her sigh And we're not sure if Sarah wanted to leave the world But on Jan 11th, she was unresponsive in her cell Well... I guess this is what happens When you lock with a Jail Someone who is obviously frail Rest In Peace: Sarah Reed Who's no longer in the World This is Hell There are cells within our bodies We don't need bodies in our cells So let me tell you a short story A story of a girl. A girl called Sarah Reed Sarah Reed Say Her Name Sarah Reed Sarah Reed Say Her Name Sarah Reed Sarah Reed Say Her Name Sarah Reed Sarah Reed Please, Say Her Name Sarah Reed Sarah Reed Say Her Name Say Her Name Say Her Name It's Sarah Reed Sarah Reed Sarah Reed Sarah Reed Say Her Name Sarah Reed