SARAH REED was a mother and a daughter. She died because she was a woman and because she was black at the young age of 32, in Holloway Prison in January this year.

Prison authorities claim she strangled herself to death in her bed in her cell. Sarah was let down repeatedly by numerous public authorities, which ultimately led to her death in a prison she should never have been in.

In 2003 Sarah’s baby died following an illness, and she and her partner had to transport their deceased baby from the hospice to the undertakers in a taxi. The loss and the events after affected Sarah’s mental health, causing her to suffer from depression over the coming years.

As if this was not bad enough, Sarah was brutally and physically attacked by a police officer, PC Kiddie, who pulled her hair, dragged her to the ground and punched her repeatedly. Kiddie was subsequently sacked in 2014.

As a result of her mental ill health she was detained under Section 3 of the Mental Health Act and while in hospital a member of staff sexually assaulted her and tried to rape her. When she defended herself from her attacker, the hospital staff called the police, not on her attacker but on Sarah and she was arrested.

The hospital was aware of her history and would have known that a male police officer coming to the mental health hospital would terrify and traumatise her because she was unwell and needed care.

Instead of protecting her from harm, a member of hospital staff caused her harm and then handed her over to the police. Sarah’s family believe that she was deliberately targeted by the police as revenge for PC Kiddie. The court remanded Sarah to prison.

They did not need to send her to prison: they knew that it was no place for a woman experiencing psychosis. They then banned her medication. Sarah told her mother Marilyn Reed repeatedly when she visited that she needed her meds and her mother in turn raised this with the prison and her medical team outside the prison, to no avail.

On the evening of January 11, Sarah’s family received a phone call informing them that Sarah, while lying on her bed, had strangled herself to death, which should be physically impossible to do. The family were told to come to the prison immediately but when they arrived, the prison refused to allow them to see Sarah’s body for two days.

They subsequently told the family she had strangled herself standing up and then ended up on her bed. Sarah’s family need answers, they need to know why their daughter died and they need to know why her life was deemed worthless as a black woman, why she was failed by so many — from the hospice, to the Met Police, to the hospital, the judicial system, the prison, the NHS.

Where was these authorities’ duty of care to Sarah? Why was she treated so badly? Experiencing mental ill health is not a crime.

Black women are treated like second-class citizens, experience double discrimination, are negatively stereotyped as aggressive and threatening when they stand up for their rights or speak out about injustice, they are the group hardest hit by cuts, they experience a double pay gap and austerity is amplifying race and sex discrimination.

This leads to deepening poverty and as vital and specialist services cease to exist due to cuts, there is less or no support when they need it. These experiences are likely to lead to many more black women suffering mental ill health, and it’s a sad reality that there are likely to be more Sarah Reeds.

When Sarah died there was a media wall of silence, my co-chair of Black Activists Rising Against Cuts had to break the silence by writing about Sarah’s story and death and, backed by the black community, blasting social media with the story repeatedly for weeks before the mainstream media reported on it. If there was no value placed on her life as a black woman, it was not surprising that the media did not care about her when she died.

Sarah’s life mattered and her family deserve justice. A community campaign has been set up of which I am a part. One of my roles in the campaign is as trade union liaison officer. The campaign led by Blaksox organised a vigil on the eve of Sarah’s funeral on February 8 and, following reports that women in Holloway Prison who stood up for Sarah and raised concerns when she died are being threatened, we organised a Protect the Prisoner demo outside the prison on February 23 at which Sarah’s mother Marilyn spoke.

She concluded her speech by saying is enough is enough, no more. She spoke of her concern for those women who defended Sarah and said she did not want anyone else to die as her daughter has.

We are organising a justice “trail” looking at all the public bodies that let Sarah down and have issued an open letter to prison authorities. There is no doubt that cuts and austerity contributed to Sarah’s horrific experiences and her death, and the anti-cuts movement and trade unions must acknowledge and act in response to the disproportionate double impact on black women.

In addition, Prison Officers Association general secretary Steve Gillan has warned that there has been a large increase in deaths in custody due to a lack of resources and a lack of training. Prisoners who have mental health issues are not being diverted from prison and Britain’s prison system doesn’t have adequate resources or training.

There are now 7,000 fewer prison guards now than there were in 2010. I know from supporting many other family justice campaigns that to even get to an inquest, let alone for justice to be served, is a long drawn out period, taking years which puts a tremendous strain on families.

Black workers have been at the forefront of ensuring that trade unions give that support and solidarity to families and Sarah’s family needs the support of the trade union movement. Sarah’s life mattered. We need to know what happened to the humanity of those who disregarded her and what happened to the duty of care of those institutions that failed her.

• Zita Holbourne is on the PCS national executive committee and TUC race relations committee, she is national co-chair of Barac UK and is a poet, artist, writer and curator. 8 She will be chairing a fringe meeting at TUC women’s conference on Thursday at lunchtime entitled Sarah Reed Justice Campaign: The Human Cost of Cuts to the Public Sector and Impact on Mental Health Care. Speakers include Marilyn Reed, a spokesperson from Blaksox and POA general secretary Steve Gillan. To receive campaign updates join the Facebook page, Sarah Reed Campaign for Justice and follow @justice4slreed on Twitter.