Inspectorate slams children's court custody procedures in Surrey and Sussex

In his report into court custody in the two counties chief inspector of prisons Nick Hardwick found a fragmented system where children’s safety was being put at risk.

During a visit in August last year HM Inspectorate of Prisons found that children were often being transferred to court in cellular vehicles with adult detainees.

Failures by escort and custody contractors to swiftly take children to young offender institutions or secure training centres were also commonplace. This meant children were spending long periods of time in cramped cells despite court officers attempting to ensure their cases were prioritised.

One young detainee appearing at Lewes Crown Court had to be left at a police station until 2am due to the late arrival of escort contractor Serco. The same contractor was involved in another case where a 16-year-old girl was not collected until 11:15pm despite being sentenced eight hours earlier.

Use of handcuffs was also variable, with some senior custody officers telling Hardwick and his team that it was legitimate to handcuff all children because “they will have been in trouble already on more than one occasion”.

Hardwick has condemned such procedures as “unacceptable”.

He added: “We found serious shortcomings in court custody in Surrey and Sussex, particularly in relation to safety, and in the care of children and other vulnerable detainees.

“Responsibilities for custody were split between several organisations that rarely met together, with none having overall responsibility for seeing the entire picture and driving forward urgently needed improvements.”

The conditions of custody facilities across the 13 courts inspected was also variable with some defendants having to endure poor-standard toilets and dirty cells. Few defendants were offered information about their rights in custody.

GEOAmey, which is contracted by the National Offender Management Service to provide custody and escort facilities, was among those to come in for criticism, in particular for poor record keeping, including detailing the outcome of complaints, and a failure to provide reading material for children while they waited in the cells.

The inspector was also critical of HM Courts and Tribunal Service and its 2013 restructure that concentrated remand cases in a small number of magistrates courts and across fewer days. This led to an overloading of court custody suites on some days but empty cells on other days.  

Among recommendations made is an end to transporting children and women appearing in court with men in the same vehicle. Delays in taking children to secure facilities also need to be reduced and there needs to be greater co-ordination between the court service and its contractors.