Revealed: brutal guide to punishing jailed youths 
Mark Townsend, The Observer
July 18, 2010
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Carol Pounder from Burnley, whose 14-year-old son Adam Rickwood was found dead at Hassockfield secure training centre in County Durham in August 2004. Photograph: Christopher Thomond |
Shocking details of techniques used to inflict
pain deliberately on children in privately run jails have been
revealed for the first time in a government document obtained by the
Observer.
Some of the restraint and self-defence measures approved by the
Ministry of Justice include ramming knuckles into ribs and raking
shoes down the shins. Other extraordinary passages in the previously
secret manual, Physical Control in Care, authorise staff to:
■ "Use an inverted knuckle into the trainee's sternum and drive
inward and upward."
■ "Continue to carry alternate elbow strikes to the young person's
ribs until a release is achieved."
■ "Drive straight fingers into the young person's face, and then
quickly drive the straightened fingers of the same hand downwards
into the young person's groin area."
The disclosure of the prison service manual follows a five-year
freedom of information battle. The manual was condemned last night
by campaigners as "state authorisation of institutionalised child
abuse".
Published by the HM Prison Service in 2005 and classified as a
restricted government document, the manual guides staff on what
restraint and self-defence techniques are authorised for use on
children as young as 12 in secure training centres. The centres are
purpose-built facilities for young offenders up to the age of 17 and
run by private firms under government contracts.
Instructions to staff warn that the techniques risk giving children
a "fracture to the skull" and "temporary or permanent blindness
caused by rupture to eyeball or detached retina".
The guidance, designed to cope with unruly children, also
acknowledges that the measures could cause asphyxia. One passage,
explaining how to administer a head-hold on children, adds that "if
breathing is compromised the situation ceases to be a restraint and
becomes a medical emergency".
Carolyne Willow, national co-ordinator of the Children's Rights
Alliance for England (CRAE), which led the campaign for disclosure
following the deaths of two teenage boys in secure training centres,
said: "The manual is deeply disturbing and stands as state
authorisation of institutionalised child abuse. What made former
ministers believe that children as young as 12 could get so out of
control so often that staff should be taught how to ram their
knuckles into their rib cages? Would we allow paediatricians,
teachers or children's home staff to be trained in how to
deliberately hurt and humiliate children?"
The campaign for publication began following the deaths of Gareth
Myatt and Adam Rickwood. Myatt, 15, died while being held down by
three staff at Rainsbrook Secure Training Centre in Warwickshire.
Myatt choked on his own vomit and died.
In the same year, 2004, 14-year-old Rickwood, from Burnley, hanged
himself at the Hassockfield Secure Training Centre in County Durham.
A judge ruled last year that the carers who restrained Rickwood
shortly before his death had used unlawful force.
His mother, Carol Pounder, was said to be "relieved" that other
parents would now know the truth behind the use of restraint.
Deborah Coles, co-director of the charity Inquest, which campaigns
on the issue of contentious deaths in custody, claimed their deaths
emanated from a "culture of obfuscation, secrecy and complacency… in
which dangerous, unlawful and ultimately lethal practices continued
unchecked".
Earlier this month the government was prepared to go to a tribunal
to fight against the disclosure of the manual, despite the
information commissioner ruling that the public interest was so
grave the document should be released. The Ministry of Justice
backed down and last week released the entire 119-page document.
Previously, officials had even refused to give a copy to the
parliamentary human rights committee.
Phillip Noyes, director of strategy and development at the National
Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children, said: "These
shocking revelations graphically illustrate the cruel and degrading
violence inflicted at times on children in custody. On occasions
these restraint techniques have resulted in children suffering
broken arms, noses, wrists and fingers. Painful restraint is a clear
breach of children's human rights against some of the most
vulnerable youngsters in society and does not have a place in decent
society."
One former manager of a secure children's home with almost 20 years'
experience said the revelations were "horrifying" and described the
self-defence techniques as "child abuse".
"Nose distraction" techniques – sharp blows to the nose – have
already been found by the Court of Appeal to have been routinely and
unlawfully used in at least one centre.
The legal director for CRAE, Katy Swaine, said the contents of the
manual offered evidence that the treatment of children in secure
training centres had contravened human rights laws. She said: "The
guidance given in this state-authorised manual violates human rights
because it allows staff to deliberately hurt children outside cases
of life-threatening necessity."
During the 12 months up to March 2009, restraint was used 1,776
times in the UK's four secure training centres.
Sir Al Aynsley-Green, the former children's commissioner for England
and emeritus professor of child health at University College London,
said: "It's time the whole country knows what is going on under
their noses. This is just part of a brutal system, and we welcome
the fact this is finally in the open."
Malcolm Stevens, a former government policy adviser and director of
secure training centres who helped to develop the government's
guidance for staff working in secure centres during the 1990s, said
he could not understand why pain-inducing techniques were endorsed.
He said: "I have never seen the need to use pain-compliant
techniques, and after 15 years my view has not changed. I have no
truck with distraction techniques."
The document also describes the application of steel handcuffs:
children are forced to "adopt a kneeling position" while a second
staff member "takes control of the head" by grabbing the back of the
neck while cupping the chin.
Willow, who has drawn up 30 parliamentary questions to be tabled by
MPs this week to ascertain how many times these self-defence
techniques have been used in the past five years, said: "The
ritualistic humiliation of making children kneel down to get
handcuffs on and off is truly sickening and a clear abuse of human
rights. Techniques include holding a 'child's forehead to the floor
with another hand on the back of the neck'."
The Ministry of Justice said: "For young people under 18, the use of
restraint is always a last resort. But where young people's
behaviour puts themselves or others at serious risk, staff need to
be able to intervene effectively, to protect the safety of all
involved." The ministry added that the manual "is an aid for
instructors" who train staff on the use of restraint techniques.
