Children are 'at risk' from jail restraint

Children 'at risk' from jail restraint - Guardian

Extract:

"A confidential study commissioned by the government's Youth Justice Board after the death of a 15-year-old boy claims the way children are being restrained in young offender institutions is putting them at risk.

The report, leaked to The Observer, states young offenders 'report that they frequently experience difficulty in breathing during restraint. There have been numerous reports from trainees indicating that many had experienced physical distress, difficulty breathing and other distress during restraints.'

The Review of Physical Control in Care and Behaviour Management in Secure Training Centres also said: 'Of those skills used, a number are unsafe and should be removed from the programme.' Staff were alleged to 'often manipulate an incident' so that they are legally allowed to use force. It gives a typical example in which a staff member initiates a 'low level of physical contact'.

The report was commissioned by the YJB, the body that oversees the institutions, in response to the death of 15-year-old Gareth Myatt in 2004, but has never been published. Myatt choked on his vomit after being restrained at Rainsbrook centre in Northamptonshire.

An inquest into Myatt's death earlier this year recorded a verdict of accidental death but was critical of the role played by the YJB and Rebound ECD, the private company that runs Rainsbrook.

The leaked report found that in some centres as many as '30 per cent' of restraint techniques were used to overcome 'non-compliance, specifically resistance to going to bed or moving from one location to another'. The findings suggest the institutions could be breaking the law. According to the Children Act 1989, 'force should not be used... simply to secure compliance with staff instructions'."

The tragic death of Gareth Myatt, a teenager who choked and died while being restrained by three guards at a privately-run youth prison.

Use of restraint blamed for prison death of boy, 15 - Guardian

Extract:

"The death of Gareth Myatt, a teenager who choked and died while being restrained by three guards at a privately-run youth prison, could have been prevented, an inquest jury found yesterday.

Jurors criticised officials at the Youth Justice Board for failing to review the safety of the restraints used on teenagers in custody, which they said was one of the causes of his death. The verdict came just days after a political row over the Ministry of Justice's plans to clarify the rules governing the use of restraints in privately-run children's jails to allow staff to use them to enforce discipline and good order.

The 15-year-old, from Stoke-on-Trent, was the first child to die while being restrained in custody when he choked to death at Rainsbrook secure training centre in Northamptonshire in April 2004. He was three days into a six-month sentence when staff followed him to his room when he refused to clean a sandwich toaster in the communal area. The inquest heard that while he was being restrained the teenager, who was 1.47 metres (4ft 10in) tall and weighed less than 45kg (7st), tried to warn staff he could not breathe but was ignored.

The jury took a day and a half to reach a verdict of accidental death. It found that the lack of an adequate safety assessment of the restraint and staff's lack of knowledge about its dangers contributed to his death. The coroner, retired judge Richard Pollard, had given it the option of a verdict of unlawful killing, which could have opened the way for legal proceedings against individuals and organisations involved, but the high court dismissed appeals for it to be given an option of corporate manslaughter."

Personally, I find it difficult to regard this as other than deliberate and wholly unwarranted cruelty against a child.