Howard League calls for end to remanding unsentenced children in custody
Fiona Simpson
Wednesday, May 20, 2020
Campaigners are calling on courts to stop remanding children in custody while prisons are on lockdown due to the coronavirus pandemic.
The Howard League for Penal Reform says most children in the youth custody estate are being held in prolonged solitary confinement because of severe restrictions imposed in response to the pandemic and has called for courts to limit the number of unsentenced children remanded during the crisis.
A new guide Children in prison during the Covid-19 pandemic, published by the Howard League alongside the Garden Court Chambers, aimed at helping lawyers representing unsentenced children states that one in three children in prison in England and Wales are unsentenced and held on remand.
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“Courts are required to subject decisions to remand children to custody to anxious scrutiny because all decisions about children should take account of their welfare and their best interests. Depriving a child of liberty should always be a last resort and for the shortest period of time. During the pandemic it is not possible to guarantee any of these things,” it states, highlighting increased restrictions across the youth custody estate due to the crisis.
“On a recent visit, the inspectorate found that children in Cookham Wood prison were getting only 40 minutes per day out of their cells. Children in Wetherby prison were given an hour while children in Parc prison got three. All children were eating meals alone in their cells.
“In most prisons, children are not receiving face-to-face education; they are receiving education sheets or worksheets under the door to be completed in their cells. One child told the Howard League that this amounted to some sheets on maths and English that took him about 25 minutes a day to complete. Another child said that his anger-management courses and art therapy had been cancelled,” the guide adds.
It also highlights children’s concerns over an inability to help parents and relatives while in prison.
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“The inspectorate found that the suspension of visits had had 'a dramatic impact' on many children, with their worries being exacerbated by not knowing how long the situation would last,” the guide adds.
Frances Crook, chief executive of the Howard League for Penal Reform, said: “At such a dangerous time, it is unconscionable to keep hundreds of children in jails – and especially so for children on remand, most of whom will not go on to receive a custodial sentence anyway.
“Every child in prison is there because a judge or magistrate has decided they should be detained. Now, more than ever, it is impossible to see how remanding children to prison is in their best interests.”
Kate Aubrey-Johnson, barrister at Garden Court Chambers, added: “With most criminal trials currently suspended, children remanded to custody are faced with uncertainty as to when their case will be heard.
“At a time when the Lord Chief Justice has invited the judiciary to take into consideration the impact of custody during the Covid-19 pandemic on all people, it is critical that criminal defence practitioners need to fight for children to be released from custody.
“That is why we have prepared this guide to provide practitioners with a toolkit to prepare effective bail applications for children. It has never been a more important time to ensure custody really is a last resort for children.”