Ingetogen 'door de wet'

State-sponsored child abuse

verstrekt door: John Bowden
Augustus 2010
Nog nieuws of updates genoteerd aan de voet van dit item

In 2004 15 year old Gareth Myatt died whilst being “restrained” by three members of staff at a privatized children’s prison called Rainsbrook Secure Training Centre in Warwickshire. In hetzelfde jaar 14 jarige Adam Rickwood verhing zich in een andere geprivatiseerde kinderen gevangenis, Hassockfield Secure Training Centre in Co. Durham.

A Judge later ruled that the guards who “restrained” Adam shortly before his death had used unlawful force on him. Six years later and following a sustained campaign by parents of imprisoned children and groups like the Children’s Rights Alliance for England (CRAE) a shocking government document detailing control methods used on children, some as young as 12, in custody has been revealed under the Freedom of Information Act.

Published by the Prison Service in 2005 and classified as a restricted government document, the manual provides staff in secure training centres with authorization to inflict physical pain on children with so-called “restraint and self-defence techniques”. The methods of physical force described in the manual are so legally questionable that the government was prepared to be taken to a tribunal to fight against disclosure of the document despite a ruling by the Information Commissioner that it should be publicly released.

Previously government officials had even refused to provide a copy to the Parliamentary Human Rights Committee. Eventually the Ministry of Justice was forced to back down and release the document; its contents made the reticence of the Justice Ministry to shame with the public, such information all too self-explanatory.

Some of the “restraint” methods used against children in custody approved by the Justice Ministry, currently headed by the liberal-thinking Ken Clark, include ramming knuckles into the ribs of children and raking shoes down the shins. It also authorised staff to: “Drive straightened 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”. “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”.

Lees het volledige rapport (PDF-bestand) >

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