A privately run prison was condemmed last night for failing its staff after three officers were cleared of manslaughter over a young inmate’s death.

Management at Rye Hill prison, which is run by Global Solutions Limited, were accused of failing to act on warnings that related to the level of support and training that was given to staff in the segregation unit.

The defendants criticised low staffing levels at the jail in Warwickshire, which holds 600 inmates, after the case against them collapsed at Northampton Crown Court.

Paul Smith, 39, a former manager of the segregation unit where Michael Bailey killed himself, said: “They failed me and everybody else. They failed me as they failed Michael Bailey. In my role as manager I did not have the opportunity to do the job properly. Straight from the start I had expressed concern about the level of support and training. I told senior management about it and they didn’t do anything.”

Mr Smith, who resigned before the case, and colleagues Daniel Daymond, 23, and Samantha Prime, 29, were each cleared on the directions of the judge. The officers were each cleared of all charges relating to the death of Bailey, 23, who hanged himself from the door of his cell.

Bailey, from Birmingham, had suffered a sudden psychiatric collapse and was on suicide watch when he died in March 2005.

A police investigation exposed a series of mistakes in the days leading to his death. Checks on Bailey, a father of one, should have taken place six times each hour, but he was left unobserved for more than an hour before his body was found. Officers should have removed his shoelaces: one was used by Bailey to hang himself.

The defendants were the first prison officers in England and Wales to be charged with manslaughter through gross negligence. They were alleged to have breached the duty that they owed to a prisoner who was mentally disturbed by failing to take reasonable steps to prevent him from taking his life. Evidence given at the trial pointed consistently to failings further up the chain of command and revealed shortcomings in operations and staffing at the prison.

Within a month of Bailey’s death another inmate at Rye Hill was murdered in his cell. Wayne Reid, 44, was stabbed twice in the heart with a 12-inch knife in a revenge attack.

Mr Justice Grigson described Bailey’s death as “an avoidable tragedy” but he said that the prosecution had failed to produce evidence which could lead a reasonable jury to convict the three defendants.

He said that failures in the systems at the jail may have contributed to the death of Bailey. He said: “I am not saying that there is no fault or failing in the system or of any individual — my judgment relates solely to these defendants.

“No one who has heard the evidence in this court can have any doubt that the death of Michael Bailey was a tragedy . . . not least because it was avoidable. Over a few days he went from being a fit young man in the prime of his life, looking forward to his release, to an anguished, confused, deluded and occasionally violent man who had taken his own life.”

Bailey, who was training to become a fitness instructor, was serving a four-year jail term for drugs offences.

Caroline Bailey, his mother, said that she was “angry and disappointed” that the case had collapsed. “This case clearly shows that there were failings at Rye Hill prison and at GSL. Individuals have failed in their duty of care to my son,” she said.

A spokesman for GSL defended the firm against allegations of a failure to support and train staff. “The staff and management at the prison take their responsibilities very seriously and the contract is closely monitored by an on-site Home Office official.” he said.

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