'Child jails' put under spotlight

 

Adam Rickwood was badly affected by his grandfather's death

 

The use of restraints in youth custody to enforce discipline should be banned, MPs and peers have said.

The mother of the youngest person to die in British custody knows only too well the potential consequences of such techniques. "They took a little boy and gave me back a body," says Carol Pounder.

Her son, Adam Rickwood, was only 14 when he hanged himself just hours after being restrained at the Hassockfield Secure Training centre in County Durham.

His mother is fighting for a public inquiry to discover what happened and push the government to ban the practices.

"What gives anyone the right to punch a 14-year-old boy in the nose and make it bleed? "   Carol Pounder

 

As a child, Adam was a "really happy boy with no worries," she says. But after struggling to cope with a number of deaths in the family he was diagnosed with emotional and behavioural difficulties.

Adam was sent to Hassockfield in July 2004 for wounding a man. Ms Pounder says days later the victim went to a police station to say Adam was not the attacker.

Within a month he was dead.

'No right'

On the night he died he was ordered to his room after passing a rude note from a boy in a cell to a security guard.

Adam refused to go, saying he hadn't done anything wrong, and the officer called for back-up.

The inquest into his death, held last May, heard a member of staff had restrained him using a "nose distraction technique" - an upward blow to the nose.

Government guidelines say certain restraint techniques are allowed when a person is being violent.

"What gives anyone the right to punch a 14-year-old boy in the nose and make it bleed?," Ms Pounder says.

"He was really upset, saying 'they've broken my nose, can you come now'."

Hours later, Adam was found hanging in his cell.

'Petrified'

"He would have been upset, completely scared and would have been thinking 'I didn't do anything wrong and they did this to me, what if I had done something wrong, what would happen then?' He would have been petrified," she says.

Ms Pounder has called for a public inquiry into Adam's death.

She said restraint was used "day in, day out," across the country.

"There are kids as young as 11, and these are some of the most vulnerable children going.

"The government has got to put a stop to it now. To stop another family going through what we are going through."

Adam Rickwood had a history of mental health problems

A report into the youngest person to die in custody has called for sweeping changes to how children are dealt with in the youth justice system.

Adam Rickwood, on remand for wounding, hanged himself at a Secure Training Centre in County Durham in 2004.

Staff had earlier subdued the 14-year-old with a legally-sanctioned special physical blow to his nose.

An official report said it was unacceptable to detain children except in exceptional circumstances.

Adam Rickwood was sent to the Hassockfield STC in County Durham in July 2004 after being charged with an offence of wounding.

He was found hanged by his shoelaces in his room four weeks later. An inquest jury returned a verdict of suicide after a month-long hearing into the circumstances surrounding the use of restraint techniques.

Suicidal tendencies

During the inquest, the jury heard that the teenager had suffered a string of mental health problems including suicidal tendencies alongside drink and drug abuse.

YOUTH CUSTODIAL TREATMENT Secure training Centres: 228 Secure Children's Homes: 261 Youth Offender Institutions: 2,435 Figures do not include over 18's held in YOIs. Source Ministry of Justice

 

He had written to his mother warning he would kill himself if forced to stay in the unit.

Hours before his death, staff had ordered the teenager to his room after he and other boys became rowdy.

Staff told the inquest into his death that the boy began a confrontation and refused to calm down. As an attempt was made to restrain him, he lashed out and attempted to bite.

One member of staff restrained the boy with the "nose distraction technique" - an upward blow to the nose.

The technique is a legally sanctioned method of subduing a teenage detainee in extreme circumstances and is designed to shock and stun.

The Howard League for Penal Reform has alternatively described it as blow with the outside of the hand rather than a punch with a closed fist.

The 14-year-old had a nose bleed following the blow and was carried to his room face down to prevent him choking on his own blood.

Recommendations

Gill Rigg, chairwoman of the Lancashire Safeguarding Children Board (LSCB), the official body charged with investigating what happened, said children under 16 should not be kept in custody in all but the most exceptional circumstances.

Locking troubled children up, subjecting them to what in any other setting could well be termed child abuse, then releasing them back on the streets burning with resentment is not a recipe for cutting crime   Fraces Cook, Howard League for Penal Reform

 

But the body also wanted the government to provide "urgent clarification" on the legal status of children placed by courts in secure centres.

Children remanded by court order to these centres are classed as "looked after" children, a status which triggers oversight obligations on social services departments. However, not all children subject to detention are monitored in the same way.

The report also called for a review of child custody restraint techniques.

The Ministry of Justice announced such a review in July, telling Parliament that a panel would look into all the issues surrounding their use.

NOSE DISTRACTION TECHNIQUE Outside of the hand used Blow to the septum (between nostrils) No punch with a closed fist Source: Howard League for Penal Reform

 

One of the most controversial, a form of hold, was banned following the death of another teenager in custody.

The report also said children under the age of 16 should be held in a secure unit within 50 miles of their home and that the receiving unit should be given a full history of the child's mental health.

A spokesman for the Youth Justice Board said it was looking at the report with interest.

"Everything possible should be done to keep young people out of custody," said a YJB statement.

"However, we need the full commitment and input of children's and other mainstream service providers to ensure that appropriate early interventions are made to keep those children and young people identified as at risk of offending out of trouble in the first place, and to ensure their needs in and following a period in secure accommodation are met."

Adam Rickwood threatened to kill himself, the inquest heard

A privately-run secure unit where a boy became the youngest person to die in custody was at "bursting point" when he died, an inquest has heard.

Adam Rickwood, 14, of Burnley, Lancs, was found hanging in his room at the Hassockfield secure training centre in County Durham in August 2004.

Chester-le-Street Magistrates' Court has heard professionals describe the unit as appropriate for his care.

But the jury was told it was described as "prison-like" by the ombudsman.

Earlier, the inquest was told Adam had written to his mother saying he would kill himself if he was not taken out of the 42-bed secure unit, which was 150 miles from his home.

The jury has heard he suffered from mental health problems, drink and drug abuse and had suicidal tendencies.

Hassockfield was an appropriate place for this young person   Peter Minchin, youth justice board

 

Professionals said that Hassockfield in Medomsley, near Consett, was purpose-built in 1999 to deal with children with similar problems.

But Richard Hermer, of the Inquest group, who is representing the teenager's family told the hearing that after a visit by the prison and probation service ombudsman painted a different picture.

He said it was described as austere and prison-like with movement impeded by an oppressive number of locked doors.

Trevor Wilson-Smith, director of Hassockfield, said huge pressure on places meant that in August 2004 they had 43 inmates instead of 42, and had 230 admissions during the year.

Extra benefits

He told the jury: "We were fit to burst to be honest.

"We had 43 young people with one young woman sleeping in healthcare because there was nowhere else to place her."

Mr Wilson-Smith outlined the centre's incentive points scheme aimed at keeping the inmates, known as trainees, in check.

He said it was based on the football league structure with a Champions League, Premiership and Nationwide League with youngsters promoted and relegated depending on their behaviour.

The higher their placing - the more benefits they enjoyed, including personal TVs and extra telephone time.

Lancashire County Council social workers and the Youth Justice Board (YJB) maintain Hassockfield was the right unit for Adam.

Peter Minchin, head of placements at the YJB, has told the inquest: "These are purpose-built training centres for vulnerable young people.

"Hassockfield was an appropriate place for this young person."

The hearing, which started on Tuesday, is scheduled to last three weeks.

 

 

feed