CAMPAIGNERS have highlighted severe overcrowding at a North-East prison after a woman was found hanged in her cell.

Staff at Durham Prison found the 48-year-old, thought to be from the South, hanging from a home-made ligature just before midnight on Thursday. They cut her down and tried, unsuccessfully, to revive her.

The prisoner, who was serving a sentence for wounding with intent and arson, had arrived from another jail two days earlier and was the only occupant of the cell.

A prison service spokesman said there would be a full investigation.

Police said the victim would not be named until relatives had been informed. They are not treating the death as suspicious.

A post-mortem examination was carried out yesterday, and an inquest is due to open next week.

The death comes after it emerged that Durham Prison had the highest suicide rate in England and Wales last year, with the deaths of six inmates.

Enver Solomon, policy officer with the Prison Reform Trust, said: "We would say it is all due to overcrowding. Durham's normal capacity is 526 and at the end of January, the population was 700. Its absolute maximum is 736."

Last year, there were 94 prison suicides in England and Wales, the highest since records began.

A spokeswoman for The Howard League for Penal Reform said female prisoners were more at risk, particularly when contact with their children was restricted.