Category: Young people

PRT comment: HMIP thematic report on incentivising and promoting good behaviour

Commenting on HM Inspectorate of Prisons report on incentivising and promoting good behaviour, Peter Dawson, director of the Prison Reform Trust, said:

“This is a very important report, and especially timely given the justice secretary’s desire to use incentives to make prisons better. The core messages are simple and well known. Relationships hold the key, and those can only be built when prisoners are out of their cells and staff have the time to get to know them. Consistent and fair application of clear standards is essential. Release on temporary licence is seen by prisoners as the biggest long term incentive, but is grossly underused.

“All of this holds true for adults as well as children, and ministers could not ask for a clearer explanation of why the overburdened adult estate is not delivering a safe and decent way of life in so many prisons. The investment all prisons need is in the time and skills to build relationships. Realistically, that has to mean an end to too many people going to prison for too long.”

PRT comment: HMIP report on HMYOI Aylesbury

Commenting on HM Inspectorate of Prisons report on HMYOI Aylesbury published today (Thursday 17 August), Mark Day, Head of Policy and Communications at the Prison Reform Trust, said:

“Young adults are among the most vulnerable, troubled individuals in custody, and yet this report into the Justice Secretary David Lidington’s local constituency prison shows that their needs are being neglected at every stage. It is particularly concerning that little progress has been made since the last inspection in 2015, and in some areas the prison has deteriorated further. The Justice Secretary this week committed to improving the accountability of prisons for responding to inspectorate recommendations. This cannot come soon enough, and must be matched by a commitment to ensure vulnerable young adults in the justice system get the distinct and tailored support they need.”

Justice committee report on young adults

Today (26 October) the House of Commons Justice Committee published its report on the treatment of young adults in the criminal justice system. The committee agreed that there is a strong case for a distinct approach to this group, one which takes account of levels of maturity and brain development at all stages of the criminal justice system, from arrest through to sentencing, community and custodial provision and resettlement.

The Prison Reform Trust is a member of the Transition to Adulthood (T2A) Alliance. You can read PRT’s submission to the committee’s inquiry by clicking here.

Commenting on the report, Alex Hewson, policy and communications officer at the Prison Reform Trust, said:

“A justice system which throws young people off a cliff edge on their 18th birthday, and expects them to fend for themselves in the adult system when they are still maturing and often vulnerable, is not one that is set up to deliver for offenders, victims or local communities. This report from the cross-party justice committee offers a clear endorsement of the importance of taking account of maturity at all stages of the criminal justice system and a comprehensive blueprint for reform.”

Harris Review debate on preventing deaths of young adults in custody

In July this year, the Harris Review published its report into self-inflicted deaths of 18–24 year olds in custody. Ahead of the publication of the government’s response, the House of Lords will debate the review’s findings for the first time today (29 October).

The Prison Reform Trust has produced a briefing for peers and interested parties which can be downloaded by clicking here. The briefing highlights the need for early diversion into treatment and support; the importance of considering maturity, rather than age; the role of specialist training for staff working with young adults; and building on the successful reduction in youth custody numbers and crime over the last seven years.

You can watch the debate live on the Parliament website by clicking here, it should begin in the late afternoon on 29 October.

Keeping children in care out of trouble

Lord Laming chairs independent review into links between care and custody

An independent review of children in care, chaired by the crossbench peer Lord Laming and established by the Prison Reform Trust, is launched today to consider the reasons behind, and how best to tackle, the over representation of looked after children in the criminal justice system in England and Wales.

Following a number of requests, the deadline for written submissions to the care review has been extended until 5.00pm on Tuesday 25 August 2015.

Children and young people with experience of care are significantly over represented in the criminal justice system. In a survey of 15-18 year olds in young offender institutions, a third of boys and 61% of girls said they had spent time in local authority care. This is despite fewer than 1% of all children in England being in care.

Looked after children aged between 10 and 17 years are more than five times as likely to be convicted or subject to a final warning or reprimand than other children.

For nearly two-thirds of looked after children, the main reason they are in care is that they have suffered abuse or neglect. Only two per cent are taken into care primarily because of their own socially unacceptable behaviour.

One girl with a criminal conviction said:

“I was moving round children’s homes, I was…pretty unsettled, I was starting school, then coming out of school, then home schooled, then finishing home school because I couldn’t stay in that placement.”

Another young person said:

“What I’ve heard from different police officers when I’ve been arrested, it’s like, ‘you’re a kid in care, you’re never [going to] get out of this way of life. You’re in care, kids in care are always on drugs, kids in care always make themselves unsafe, kids in care always self-harm’. So they sort of put a title on kids in care like they’re something bad.”

The review team is formed from a broad cross-section of senior policymakers and practitioners, including social workers, police, magistrates, academics and other experts. It will be informed by a consultation group of children and young people who have been in care and been in trouble with the law.

The consultation group will hold its first meeting, chaired by Lord Laming, this Thursday (25 June) at the House of Lords. Young people from the group will attend the first full review team meeting later the same day and will give evidence about their own experience of care and the criminal justice system to the review team.

The review team is calling for evidence from all those who have experience of the care system and the criminal justice system, including children and young people who have been in care and have been in trouble, their families and carers, social workers, youth offending team managers, police and local authority leads and others who work with children in care and children in trouble with the law.
Submissions may be sent by email to: carereview@prisonreformtrust.org.uk or by post to: Care Review, C/o Prison Reform Trust, 15 Northburgh Street, London EC1V 0JR. Telephone enquiries may be made to Katy Swaine Williams, Care Review Co-ordinator, on 020 7251 5070. The closing date for written evidence is Tuesday 25 August 2015.

For more information go to:www.prisonreformtrust.org.uk/carereview

The review team will also invite oral submissions at its meetings, to be held six-weekly in central London, and will visit at least one young offender institution and other projects around England and Wales as part of the evidence gathering process. The review is expected to report early in 2016.

Commenting on the launch of the review, Lord Laming said:

“It is a huge step for the state to assume the parenting of a child or young person. With that comes the responsibility to provide stability, security and hope for the future. Fewer than 1% of children and young people are committed to the care of local authorities, yet a third of boys and 61% of girls in custody are, or have been in care. We cannot stand by and allow wasted opportunities to result in wasted later lives. We are determined to ensure this review makes practical recommendations to enable key services to work together to help children in care transform their life chances and stay out of trouble.”

Juliet Lyon, Director of the Prison Reform Trust, said:

“There is a depressing route from care to custody which can, and must, be stopped. We need to listen to children in care about how they got drawn into trouble and hear their views on ways to get out of it.”

The Harris Review: deaths of young people in custody ‘a failure by the State’

Commenting on Changing Prisons, Saving Lives: Report of the Independent Review into Self-inflicted Deaths in Custody of 18-24 year olds (The Harris Review), Juliet Lyon, Director of the Prison Reform Trust, said:

“Too many vulnerable young people are slipping through the net of mental health and welfare services and ending up behind bars. Very many of the tragic deaths described in this sobering report could have been prevented by thorough assessment and intervention at an earlier stage in these young peoples’ lives. Time and again this is what bereaved families say after struggling for years to get the help they need. The stark recommendation for the Minister to telephone families when a loved one has died in custody will come as a shock but it may well be that that only when this conversation takes place that change will result and true accountability be achieved.
“The report raises the fundamental question of why we lock up our most vulnerable young people in our bleakest and most short-staffed institutions. Prison should be a place of last resort and far more needs to be done to divert young people out of the criminal justice system into proper treatment and support.”

You can read the evidence the Prison Reform Trust submitted to the review here. An independent review was one of the recommendations of the Prison Reform Trust and Inquest’s joint report Fatally Flawed, on learning the lessons from the deaths of children and young people in prison.

PRT letters in the press

Warehousing children in massive prisons is wrong (Telegraph)
Children in trouble with the law are vulnerable and must be housed in a small, family-like environment
Figures suggest prisons are seeing higher rates of death amongst the elderly.

SIR – Government plans for the largest children’s prison in Europe are bad for children, bad for justice and bad for the taxpayer. Children in trouble with the law are some of the most vulnerable and challenging in our society. Many have been the victims of abuse and neglect.
Small, family-like, secure homes that focus on rehabilitation and tailored, individual learning are better at helping children turn their lives around. Instead we get a plan to create massive child prisons and no details on how they will be run. Proposals to house young children with older teenagers present serious safeguarding risks.

There are 40 per cent fewer children in prison today than when this policy of large prisons for children was first developed, and since 2002 youth crime has fallen by 63 per cent. The estimated £85 million of public money required for this project would be better spent on investing in what works rather than an expensive and dangerous child jail.

Warehousing children in massive prisons is the surest way to create more problems for the future.

Peter Wanless

CEO, NSPCC
Shami Chakrabarti
Director, Liberty
Paola Uccellari
Director, Children’s Rights Alliance for England
Frances Crook
Chief Executive, the Howard League for Penal Reform
Penelope Gibbs
Chair, Standing Committee on Youth Justice
Juliet Lyon
Director, Prison Reform Trust
Kathy Evans
Chief Executive, Children England
Anna Feuchtwang
Chief Executive, National Children’s Bureau
Susanne Rauprich
Chief Executive, The National Council for Voluntary Youth Services
Emma Smale
Acting Head of Policy and Research, Action for Children
Professor Sir Simon Wessely
President, Royal College of Psychiatrists
Sarah Brennan
Chief Executive, YoungMinds
Dame Sue Bailey
Chair, the Children and Young People’s Mental Health Coalition
Andy Bell
Deputy Chief Executive, Centre for Mental Health
Shauneen Lambe
Executive Director, Just for Kids Law
Deborah Coles
Co-Director, INQUEST
Sarah Salmon
Interim Director, Criminal Justice Alliance
Pam Hibbert
Chair of Trustees, National Association for Youth Justice
Dave Clarke
Chair, Secure Accommodation Network
Gareth Jones
Chair, The Association of Youth Offending Team Managers
Dr Laura Janes
James Kenrick
Co-Chairs, JustRights
Joyce Moseley
Chair, Transition to Adulthood Alliance
Sara Llewellin
Chief Executive Officer, Barrow Cadbury Trust
Richard Garside
Director, Centre for Crime and Justice Studies
Deborah Russo
Joint Managing Solicitor, Prisoners’ Advice Service
Mark Johnson
Founder and Chief Executive Officer, User Voice
Chris Bath
Chief Executive, National Appropriate Adult Network
Dr Theo Gavrielides
Founder and Director, Independent Academic Research Studies
Sally Hunt
General Secretary, University and College Union

Prisons: don’t shoot the messengers (Guardian)

The independent monitoring board report on HMP Wormwood Scrubs is the latest in a series of stark, critical independent monitoring board and HM inspectorate of prisons reports that reveal a prison service buckling under the strain of unprecedented staff and budget cuts (Wormwood Scrubs cuts led to ‘chaos and dysfunction’, 8 October). If, as Eric Allison reports (Grayling’s prisons plan? Shoot the messenger, 8 October), justice ministers are considering making changes, they would be better advised to listen to a well-respected, independent chief inspector, read the information submitted by IMBs and act to put things right rather than ignore a growing crisis in our jails.
Juliet Lyon
Director, Prison Reform Trust

Prison Reform Trust welcomes independent review into the deaths of young people in custody

Commenting on the government’s announcement today of an independent review into the deaths of young people in custody, Juliet Lyon, Director of the Prison Reform Trust, said:

“We welcome the government’s commitment to establish an independent review into the deaths of young people in custody. In preparation for and during the review, it will be vital that proper account is taken of the views and experiences of bereaved families. The scope of the review should extend well beyond the short journey from the court to prison. The review has the potential to go further than coroners are able, and many would like, to take account of how a young person first got into trouble, underlying vulnerability or history of abuse or neglect and the sentencing decisions that led to imprisonment.

“It is encouraging that the government has delayed its response to the consultation on young adults in custody to take account of the outcome of the review. How can mixing vulnerable young people with adult prisoners do anything but increase the risk of self-harm and suicide?

“It is a matter of concern that the government has excluded those aged under 18 from the scope of the review while at the same time it is proceeding with plans, contained in the Criminal Justice and Courts Bill, to create a secure training college and potentially reduce placements for the most vulnerable children in secure children’s homes.

“While education is vital, provision for children must take account of mental health needs, learning disabilities, addictions and childhood abuse or neglect. Small, local, intensively staffed units with a focus on taking responsibility, making amends to victims, gaining skills for employment and having a home to go to are safer and more effective than putting hundreds of teenagers together in over-large institutions.

“Most worryingly of all, the bill makes provision for prison officers to restrain children forcefully simply for not following orders. The courts have made clear that restraining a child for ‘good order and discipline’ is illegal and inquests into the deaths of children have shown that such methods contributed to their deaths. As the independent review seeks to learn the lessons from the deaths of young people in custody, it would be a tragedy if the government proceeds with plans which could put children at greater risk of suicide and self-harm. Before it reverses improvements made in the treatment and conditions of the most vulnerable children in the justice system, the government should review its plans and bring under 18s within the scope of this independent review.”

Notes

On Wednesday 5 February Inquest, the Prison Reform Trust and allied organisations had a letter published in the Daily Telegraph calling on the Government to establish, as a matter of urgency, an independent review with effective involvement from bereaved families in order to safeguard lives in future.

An independent review was one of the recommendations of the Prison Reform Trust and Inquest’s joint report Fatally Flawed, on learning the lessons from the deaths of children and young people in prison.

Inquest has also published a briefing on why a review is urgently needed.

200 deaths of imprisoned children and young people in ten years – new report calls for urgent action

A new evidence based report examining the experiences and treatment of children and young people who died in prison custody in England and Wales is published by INQUEST and the Prison Reform Trust today. Fatally Flawed: Has the state learned lessons from the deaths of children and young people in prison? is an in-depth analysis of the deaths of children and young people (aged 18-24) while in the care of the state.

Following the death of Joseph Scholes, a 16 year old boy who died at Stoke Heath Young Offender Institution in 2002, there was widespread public and parliamentary concern and calls made for a public inquiry.

That inquiry never took place and since Joseph died on 24 March 2002, nine children and 191 young people aged 24 and under have died in prison or, in the case of two of the children, imprisoned in a secure training centre.

The report, commissioned by the Prison Reform Trust as part of its Out of Trouble five year programme to reduce child and youth imprisonment, supported by the Diana, Princess of Wales Memorial Fund, is based on the unique dataset compiled by INQUEST through its specialist advice and casework service, supporting the families of children and young people through the investigation and inquest process. In particular, the experiences of 98 children and young people who died between 2003 and 2010 are looked at in detail, forming the basis for the findings and recommendations contained in the report.

For the first time, this analysis reveals the systemic failings that have contributed to some of the deaths of young people aged 18-24. Often overlooked and neglected in a regime that does not differentiate between young adults and adults, there is little institutional understanding of, or attention to, their specific needs.

The report found that the children and young people who died:

were some of the most disadvantaged in society and had experienced problems with mental health, self-harm, alcohol and/or drugs;
had significant interaction with community agencies before entering prison yet in many cases there were failures in communication and information exchange between prisons and those agencies;
despite their vulnerability, they had not been diverted out of the criminal justice system at an early stage and had ended up remanded or sentenced to prison;
were placed in prisons with unsafe environments and cells;
experienced poor medical care and limited access to therapeutic services in prison;
had been exposed to bullying and treatment such as segregation and restraint;
were failed by the systems set up to safeguard them from harm.

The analysis also found there had been inadequate institutional responses to the deaths of children and young people in prison. Investigations and inquests are subject to lengthy delay and mechanisms are currently inadequate to ensure learning is acted upon by all relevant agencies.

Deborah Coles, co-director of INQUEST said:

These deaths are the most extreme outcome of a system that fails some of society’s most troubled and disadvantaged children and young people. This shocking death toll has been obscured for far too long and for the first time, we now have a clear picture of the extent of the problem and the fatal consequences of placing vulnerable young people in unsafe institutions ill equipped to deal with their complex needs.
Working on a daily basis with bereaved families we see inquest after inquest raising the same issues and despite promises of change the deaths continue as illustrated by the self inflicted deaths of two children and eight young people already this year.

It is difficult to comprehend how despite the persistent death toll there has been a repeated refusal and resistance to holding a holistic inquiry to examine the wider systemic and policy issues underlying the deaths of children and young people in custody. This report must prompt an independent review as a matter of urgency as there is a pressing need to learn from the failures that cost these young people their lives.

Yvonne Bailey, mother of Joseph Scholes, said:

I have read the report with sorrow. It is now over a decade since my son Joseph died in fear and distress hanging from the window bars of his squalid cell in a children’s prison. While I welcome the changes and improvements that have taken place in the prison estate during the last ten years – changes which would almost certainly not have taken place had it not been for the tireless work carried out by INQUEST, the Prison Reform Trust and others – the deaths of a further nine young boys are devastating evidence that the changes implemented were yet again wholly insufficient to fulfil the duty on the state to protect the right to life of the children it imprisons.

I am saddened and perplexed by the continuing and repeated refusal of successive governments to properly investigate through a public inquiry the circumstances that have led to the deaths of child prisoners.

Juliet Lyon, Director, Prison Reform Trust, said:

Every young death in custody is a tragedy made all the more harrowing when such deaths could be prevented by effective safeguarding measures and greater cooperation between health, welfare and criminal justice agencies.

After 200 deaths in ten years it is time to learn that locking up our most vulnerable children and young people in our bleakest institutions is a process that is fatally flawed.

The former Chief Inspector of Prisons, Lord Ramsbotham, writing in the foreword to the report, said:

Too often ‘tough’ talk about crime and punishment does not result in the authoritative action needed to rectify the flaws in our criminal justice system. This system and services in the community, whose failures are described in the report, have demonstrably let young people down, for all the wrong reasons, for far too long. I wholeheartedly endorse this report’s final recommendation that an independent review be established, with the proper involvement of families, to examine the wider systemic and policy issues underlying the deaths of children and young people in prison.

Read selected press coverage here:

Contacts:

Prison Reform Trust

Mark Day, Head of Policy and Communications 020 7689 7746 / 07725 526 525 / mark.day@prisonreformtrust.org.uk

Juliet Lyon, Director, Prison Reform Trust 07762 093 105

INQUEST

Hannah Ward, Communications Manager 020 7263 1111 / hannahward@inquest.org.uk

Deborah Coles, Co-Director, 07714 857 236

Notes:

1. ‘Fatally Flawed: Has the state learned lessons from the deaths of children and young people in custody’ is being launched on 24 October at a roundtable in the House of Lords chaired by the former Chief Inspector of Prisons, Lord Ramsbotham.

2. This report by INQUEST was commissioned by the Prison Reform Trust as part of its Out of Trouble five year programme to reduce child imprisonment, supported by The Diana, Princess of Wales Memorial Fund.

3. The report’s full recommendations for change with the aim of preventing further deaths of vulnerable children and young people in prison are:

1) The custody threshold should be raised to ensure imprisonment becomes a true last resort, and is reserved for the minority of children and young people who commit serious violent offences and who pose a significant risk to others. Custody should not be the default response to low-level persistent offending.

2) Minor offences and anti-social behaviour committed by children and young people should be viewed as a public health, rather than criminal justice, issue and diverted to the health, welfare and other agencies which are best-placed to tackle it.

3) A common assessment framework which is built on a shared understanding of vulnerability should be developed for use by welfare and criminal justice professionals, so as to avoid the arbitrary distinction made by many statutory services between children and young people.

4) Sentencers must be better aware of the principles and sentencing guidelines which should underpin their decisions about the use of custody for children and young people.

a) Comprehensive training should be provided for sentencers (in both youth and Crown courts) and their legal advisers to enable better identification of complex needs, vulnerability and the court’s options under mental health legislation.

b) Full up-to-date information on locally available alternatives to custody for children and young people should be available to the courts.

5) A new, distinct secure estate with an emphasis on therapeutic environments and interventions should be developed for the minority of children and young people whose offending is so serious that only a secure placement can be justified.

6) Research on the distinct support needs of 18-24 year olds in custody, how they differ from those of adult prisoners, and how they are best identified and addressed should be urgently undertaken.

7) A clear system for identifying and managing looked after children and care leavers in custody, and ensuring the input of all statutory partners including social workers, youth offending practitioners and staff in the secure estate, should be introduced.

8) A review of the operation of the ACCT scheme should be conducted with a view to improving the accuracy of assessments and providing better support to those identified as at risk of harm.

9) Substantial improvements are needed in the availability and quality of mental healthcare provided to children and young people in custody.

a) Imminent changes to healthcare provision in prisons should be taken as an opportunity to drive up standards.

b) Procedures for transferring prisoners out of the secure estate under mental health legislation should be re-examined, and, where necessary, updated with new guidelines.

10) Delays in the inquest process must be addressed as a matter of urgency to ensure bereaved families do not have to wait years to hear the circumstances of a relative’s death in custody, and that organisational learning from deaths is timely.

11) Families bereaved by a death in custody should be eligible for public funding to enable their legal representation at inquests.

12) All coroners’ Rule 43 recommendations and juries’ narrative verdicts should be publicly accessible through a national database and analysed, audited and brought to the attention of Parliament to ensure responses from relevant Ministers.

13) An Independent Review should be established, with the proper involvement of families, to examine the wider systemic and policy issues underlying the deaths of children and young people in custody. As a starting point the Ministerial Council on Deaths in Custody should commission a new working group of the Independent Advisory Panel to draw together the specific learning from recent deaths of children and young people and identify issues for an independent review to consider.

Prison Reform Trust (PRT) is an independent UK charity working to create a just, humane and effective penal system.

We do this by inquiring into the workings of the system; informing prisoners, staff and the wider public; and by influencing Parliament, government and officials towards reform.

The Prison Reform Trust’s main objectives are:

reducing unnecessary imprisonment and promoting community solutions to crime
improving treatment and conditions for prisoners and their families

The Prison Reform Trust provides the secretariat to the All Party Parliamentary Penal Affairs Group.

INQUEST is a charity that provides a general telephone advice, support and information service to any bereaved person facing an inquest and a free, in-depth specialist casework service on deaths in custody/state detention or involving state agents and works on other cases that also engage article 2 of the ECHR and/or raise wider issues of state and corporate accountability.

INQUEST’s policy and parliamentary work is informed by its casework and we work to ensure that the collective experiences of bereaved people underpin that work. Its overall aim is to secure an investigative process that treats bereaved families with dignity and respect; ensures accountability and disseminates the lessons learned from the investigation process in order to prevent further deaths.

Please refer to INQUEST the organisation in all capital letters in order to distinguish it from the legal hearing.