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Juvenile Detention

I am not quite sure what that meant, Mr. Speaker, but I am happy to have a go again, without a sense of déjà vu—but it has been an odd kind of day anyway, what with one thing and another. Lord Carlile's public inquiry into the treatment of children found examples of treatment that would be considered as abusive in every other setting and probably have triggered some child protection investigation, but because it takes place in prison, of course, that does not happen. The rule of law and general basic human rights for children should apply equally wherever they are, and that includes living in custody. The Government are putting an awful lot of money into Every Child Matters, but the children do not seem to matter if they are held in custody. There is an international context. Quite rightly, this country is very proud of often arguing that we need to abide by UN conventions. We are constantly lecturing in many ways the rest of the international community to try to reach those high standards. But in respect of our standards for children in custody, the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child has repeatedly expressed its concern about the UK's lack of compliance, both in policy and in practice. Despite that UN criticism, the Government have done very little to address those concerns. Worse still, many of the non-governmental bodies that we speak to say that, instead of things remaining neutral, they have got worse in recent years. I want to put to the Minister a number of concerns, the first of which is the age of criminal responsibility. I do not expect for a minute the Government to shift their view on that, but it is a concern that we in this country regard children as culpable for offences at the age 10. The UN convention on the issue is very clear, and there is a growing consensus that to categorise children of that early age in that way is wrong. In the rest of international practice, the age at which criminal responsibility is triggered is a lot higher. So the UK has already pushed the boundaries of what is acceptable to the UN. The second issue is the number of children who are in detention. Not only do we choose to imprison at a very early age, but the numbers are increasing, many for minor offences. Article 37(b) of the UN convention on the rights of the child states clearly that the"““detention or imprisonment of a child shall be a measure of last resort””," but the UK Government have made little attempt to meet the spirit of that and incorporate the last resort concept into our domestic law. In fact, it is clear that we stray a long way from the principle of last resort. Our per capita prison population is high, and we have the highest number of children in custody. For every 100,000 children in England and Wales, about 23 are in custody—a figure that is higher than that in France, Spain or Finland, for example, where the figures are six, two and 0.2 respectively. It is not just the age at which we imprison but the increasing number of children whom we imprison that is of concern. The number of 15 to 17-year-olds in prison in this country has increased by 98.6 per cent. in 10 years. That is a huge increase. None of those figures suggests that the Government regard such imprisonment as a last resort—quite the opposite, they regard it as a priority to send a tough message to youngsters. If it were seen as a last resort under a Labour Government, surely we would have seen some of those figures declining in some way. I want to consider the current conditions in which some of our youngsters are held in custody. Overcrowding is one of the big problems. Ellie Roy, the chief executive of the Youth Justice Board has spoken of the claustrophobic conditions in which young offenders live. Anyone with children knows just how important it is to let them run around to let off steam, but the conditions in which we keep some children mean that it is very difficult for them to exercise and get rid of their energy. It is no surprise that that creates tension in the institutions, where there is pent-up anger. That leads to aggression, which leads to difficulties in those institutions. Today, a report produced by the Howard League for Penal Reform focuses on the conditions faced by children in prison. It shows that between 2003 and 2006, 18,000 assaults took place in young offenders institutions—an extremely worrying figure. The Minister will know of the case of Adam Rickwood, who committed suicide only hours after being restrained. The serious case review panel said that, on the evidence that it had seen, Adam should not have been detained and that"““the whole criminal justice system treated””" Adam"““as a child in need of custody, rather than a child in need of care””." That sums up some of the flaws in our system. We know that, by their nature, prisons are institutions designed for security rather than for care. The structure of a prison militates against the delivery of a child-centred care policy, and with such a poor staff-child ratio it is almost impossible to address the individual needs of what are obviously vulnerable children. Remember that more than half of the children coming into custody have a history of involvement with care or social services, more than half have serious mental health problems, and more than half were dependent on a drug in the year prior to their imprisonment. Those are major problems, and I am not convinced that they are being tackled in our present custody regime. Restraint is a controversial issue in relation to looking after children in custody. I welcome the Government's decision to hold a review of the issue; it would be helpful if the Minister said a little more about the terms of reference and what he hopes the review will cover. I hope that it will bring some clarity to a murky area. There are plenty of matters that the review should consider. It should acknowledge and examine the link between the violence of the restraint used and the violent response that it may prompt from the youngsters on the receiving end. I do not for a minute deny that this is a difficult matter. This morning, I spoke to a prison officer who told me how difficult it is to restrain a 15-year-old who is flying off the handle. In those circumstances, what should a prison officer do? Clearly, restraint is unavoidable in some circumstances, but I would like to hear a commitment from the Government to look into whether the amount of restraint used can be reduced, so that it really is a last resort. In addition, clarity is needed in some of the regulations, for example, the amendment rules. By allowing the use of restraint to help to maintain ““good order and discipline””, without any consultation, the Government have created a vague extension of powers, which lends itself to different interpretations throughout the various prison regimes. I do not believe that there is clarity in this area. For example, when staff at Hassockfield secure training centre were asked about it, they gave varying explanations of when they felt restraint could be used. Clarity would be enormously helpful. On staffing and education, there simply is not enough focus on children in our prison system. Any attempt at a child-centred approach is jeopardised by the fact that young offenders institutions are managed by area managers with general responsibility for all prisons. Surely we need specialist management that can focus on the unique issues relating to children. All too often, experienced staff suddenly move to an adult prison, away from the youth justice system. The target culture is also having a bad influence. Private firms managing secure training centres, under pressure to meet targets for children's participation in education so that they get financial rewards, were found during the Carlile inquiry to be using restraint to ensure that children attended education sessions. That is even more staggering when one considers how crucial education is to those young people, with almost half of children in custody having literacy and numeracy levels lower than an average 11-year-old's. Finally, I want to talk about family access to children in prison. Children in custody face terrible isolation. Of course, some lack a family support network, which is probably one of the reasons why they are in custody. In those circumstances, we need to find adults who will visit and give them support. For those who have a family, there are a number of barriers. As a result of overcrowding, visiting a child in prison can be quite difficult, simply because of the distances involved. That is not the only problem: Action for Prisoners Families found in its research that families of children in three juvenile prisons have registered a great number of complaints about the difficulty in getting through to the visit booking line. There were 41 complaints about that at the New Hall juvenile facility between July and September 2007. Those problems are not new. Action for Prisoners Families tells me that it has been pressing the Government on the issue for some time, and it is of concern that nothing has been done. It is critical that we do more to try to get the family of a child in prison involved; that has to help with rehabilitation afterwards. One of the concerns about children in custody is the confusion over who owns the issue. Responsibility seems to be divided between the Department for Children, Schools and Families and the Ministry of Justice. There needs to be greater clarity about who exactly has responsibility for the issue. The DCSF will co-ordinate the response to the UN convention on the rights of the child, but the Ministry of Justice continues to take charge of juvenile detention. That is incomprehensible. I await with interest the memorandum of understanding between the Ministry of Justice and the DCSF to see whether we can get clarity on the issue. It will be helpful to hear the Minister's view on where ownership lies. Children are in custody because of the difficulties that they have incurred. I do not for one minute underestimate the difficulties of holding and dealing with children in custody. However, when it comes to issues including the number of children in custody, the age from which we hold individuals in custody, restraint, education and training, problems of overcrowding, and the way in which we give access to those children, we are letting down that vulnerable group. All of those points taken together have given rise to serious concerns on the part of the UN. I hope that the Minister will give me some reassurance that the Government, as a priority, want to address the concerns raised by the United Nations.