Skip to content or view screen version

Hey, screws, leave those kids alone

Freedom | 27.01.2004 12:19 | Repression

"Disruptive" children who won't bow down to the screws' authority in youth prisons are put in solitary confinement - thrown naked (because apparently clothing "threatens the child's safety"!) into illegal "strip cells" with no light, ventilation, furniture or sanitation, where they are forced to use the floor as a toilet. Over the last year more than 100 children were sent to these cells for periods of up to 5 days each. The Howard League for Penal Reform is investigating an allegation that two young offenders were kept in solitary confinement for more than a year.
[from Freedom, Anarchist News and Views newspaper]

Prison reformers said that "you have to treat children with decency if you want them to change their behaviour. This barbaric practice must stop" and expressed horror that it was so widespread. New figures released by the Home Office show that the cells have been used systematically over the last year, despite bureaucratic lies that they were used in just one institution. 'Special cells' were (officially) used 153 times at youth prisons across the country. Top of the list is Huntercombe in Oxfordshire, where they were used 46 times, followed by Feltham in west London (32) and Lancaster Farms (27).

Judges and politicians spouted platitudes on the matter - it's lawful to separate children for short periods but they should be treated humanely, the cells are used only in extreme circumstances and not as punishments - but in practice prison governors and officers will do whatever they want, whenever they can get away with it, which is most of the time. And solitary cells provide a convenient method of frightening, punishing and degrading inmates to make them easier to control.

**

Freedom is a two-weekly Britain-based newspaper of anarchist news, listings and analysis. Write to or email us for a free sample copy to anywhere in the world.

Freedom
- e-mail: info@freedompress.org.uk
- Homepage: http://www.freedompress.org.uk

Comments

Hide the following 5 comments

rubbish

27.01.2004 13:40

Those cells do have light, they do have a means of sanitation, and they do have ventilation because if they didn't they'd die in there. Also, they are not naked, they are issued with paper suits that they cannot harm themselves with.

Before you start ranting, answer this, would you want the thugs in these insitutions to be let out to rampage down the street? What if it was your mum they were attacking? They're in these places for a reason. Some of them have raped, murdered, been involved in robbery or terrorising the community. They are young thugs and should be locked-up to protect the community until they have reformed. They are in the lap of luxury, tv's in their rooms, playstations, etc.

They lack discipline and are a danger to society.

You also forget that some of these kids actually LIKE it in there. In fact, with all their luxuries and "human rights" it's no surprise they do.

If anything, we should make it TOUGHER on these miscreants.

Screw


hmmm

27.01.2004 14:07

that's interesting... but are there any sources/refs for that info?

curious


with regard to the "paper suits" thing.....

27.01.2004 14:09

with regard to the "paper suits" thing.....

remember the screams of anguish and accusation against the authorities if someone in prison manages to commit suicide.
We can't have it both ways.

I have a relative who works in a mental hospital, and suicide prevention is a big problem. A few days ago a patient took advantage of the situation when another patient went berserk, dragging half the ward into hysteria like a line of dominos going down. She quietly went to her room and hung herself by her shoelaces. Discovered missing as soon as the chaos died down, and just before the point of no return. Her neck is horribly marked. She now has her own personal full time member of staff, in the room with her 24hrs. Since they are understaffed anyway, the extra hours are supplied from a private agency, at gigantic cost. The mental health trust is teetering on the edge of bankruptcy.

Apparently the standard suicide method uses bed sheets wedged into the top of doors, with knots to stop them slipping. The staff have considered cutting 5inches off the top of each door, but then the patients all lose privacy and such sound proofing as they have to protect them from the periodic raving in the next cubicle, most likely half the night. Yes - thats right - wholesale sedation, as in "one flew over the cuckoos nest" is now frowned upon.

susan


yeah right

27.01.2004 17:21

Ah right you big tough screw - so they have it too easy eh?
Locking children up in solitary for a year?

Gimme a break.

And if these people are so antisocial, so you think abusing them in this way is going to fill them with love for their fellow human?
If anything it's gonna give them some far worse problems than before...

enraged


With rights come responsibilities

28.01.2004 18:42

People should be entitled to basic rights and freedoms, but they also need to be responsible for their actions and realise that it is WRONG to intimidate, mug, rape and steal from people, and people who do so have abused their rights to freedom and therefore should forefit them. People who act like thugs and who cause misery to their community should not be allowed to go unpunished, and should therefore be removed and isolated from the rest of society until they can prove that they are no longer going to act in such an offending manner.

anti-extremist