[ZeroGravitas]

Can't find any links to the suicides, I may be conflating the string of female prison suicides at Corton Vale in the 1990s (story: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/1852047.stm) with the more general pressure from MP's to reduce the number of women (primarily young, poor, single and with dependent children) jailed for licence fee non-payment that occurred at the same time (it dropped as a result from 250 to 50 a year in the middle of the decade, still far too many and possibly still the leading cause of female imprisonment in the UK).