Prisons - in brief (14)
01 July 2007
UK: Gareth Myatt inquest criticises Youth Justice Board: The five week inquest into the death of 15-year old Gareth Myatt at Rainsrook Secure Training Centre in April 2004, concluded on 29 June 2007 and delivered a verdict of accidental death, with sweeping criticisms about the conduct of the Youth Justice Board (YJB). Gareth died of positional asphyxia while being restrained by custody officers. The jury held that the YJB's failure to undertake a review of Physical Control in Care, despite a call for urgent medical review by the National Children's Bureau, directly contributed to Gareth's death. Not only did no member of the YJB have the dignity to resign, but the YJB proposed an amendment to the rules on physical restraint techniques to facilitate the use of "pain compliant" restraint techniques (punching a child in the nose) not solely in situations of genuine risk to persons or property, but simply to ensure good order and discipline. Pain compliant techniques were utilized 3,036 times on 240 children in STCs between November 2005 and October 2006. Condemned for failing to protect the children in its care, the YJB has moved to further sanction the physical abuse of children.
INQUEST 29.6.07; The Guardian 22.6.07.
UK: "Dilapidated" HMP Maidstone struggling: An announced inspection of HMP Maidstone, re?enrolled as a category C training prison in 2003, found the jail struggling to cope with ageing accommodation, a serious drug problem and a lack of purposeful activity. Some 45% of prisoners reported feeling unsafe. The jail is an early nineteenth century building and one wing, Weald House, was unfit for purpose but had been brought back into service because of the population crisis. The prison was failing to provide new prisoners with basic items such as clean bedding and underwear. Resettlement remained underdeveloped, with no functioning offender management unit and a backlog in sentence plans. "HMP Maidstone is an overcrowded, dilapidated Victorian prison, poorly designed and resourced for its role as a 21st century training prison."
Report of an announced inspection of HMP Maidstone February 2007?HM Prisons Inspectorate July 2007
UK: Concerns at HMP Portand's capacity to support young prisoners: HMP Portland is a young offenders institution with a population of 18?21 year old young men. The prisons inspectorate had serious concerns about the jail's capacity to properly support its population ? the majority from London and the south?east. Bullying and gang affiliation were major issues. Two wings were wholly unfit for purpose. Rodney and Hardy wings lacked integral sanitation. Prisoners were not always able to get out of their cells to use the toilet recesses and resorted to throwing faeces and urine out of the cell windows. The toilet recesses themselves leaked into accommodation below. There were only 70 vocational training places for over 500 young prisoners. There was no regular outdoor exercise, and limited access to inadequate PE facilities. At the time of the inspection, due to population pressure the jail was expecting to increase its numbers, compounding the difficulty in finding appropriate work, training and purposeful activity.
HM Prisons Inspectorate "Report of Unannounced Visit HMYOI Portland January 2007" June 2007
UK: HMP Acklington - an unsafe environment for prisoners: HMP Acklington is a large Category C prison in Northumberland, much expanded and struggling to provide sufficient purposeful activity places and safe environment for inmates. Drugs and bullying were rife in the main prison. Accommodation varied from adequate to unacceptable, with some residential areas mouldy, damp and cold. Time out of cell was poor, and there was insufficient purposeful activity for a training prison. Resettlement was weak, with an incoherent approach to sex offenders and inadequate public protection arrangements. Acklington was a training prison in name only and c