Young people demand sound recording cameras in youth custody settings

The report was put together by the Children’s Rights Alliance for England and a team of young investigators with experience of custody.

It includes 19 recommendations designed to reduce violence, including a call for a greater emphasis on talking as a means of resolving conflict, more access to physical activities for young offenders, and proposals that staff in youth custody settings should have direct experience of working with young people.

The young investigators warned that a “claustrophobic atmosphere” and “boredom, frustration and stress” act as triggers for violence in custody. They also said the actions of staff could lead to incidents, and argued that cameras with sound recording should be used to monitor behaviour and increase professionals’ transparency and accountability.?

Staff members were criticised for goading young people, by talking about their offence and using force excessively when intervening in an incident. “Sometimes it’s not right, they go over the top,” one 16-year-old boy said. “They hurt people”.

Several interviewees described police officers using humiliating and threatening language and higher levels of force than experienced in dedicated youth custody settings. ?One 16-year-old girl said: “In police stations I’ve had my finger slammed in cell doors. And I’ve almost broken my jaw when he slammed us down on concrete.”

Paola Uccellari, director of the Children’s Rights Alliance for England said government, the Youth Justice Board, governors of custodial settings, police forces and judges must take the young people’s recommendations seriously.

“The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child guarantees every child the right to be free from all forms of violence,” she said. “Sadly, we know that children and young people experience violence in custodial settings – and our research released today confirms this.”

Andrew Neilson, director of campaigns at the Howard League for Penal Reform, which is supporting the report, said the findings of the report make it “abundantly clear that adult-style jails are not safe places for children”.

“Young people have described how violence is a common experience in custody, with children attacking each other and staff too readily using physical force to control them,” he said.

“Their compelling accounts combine to illustrate why there is no place for inflicting painful restraint on children, a practice that has been linked to the deaths of two young boys in privately run secure training centres.

“We currently have a criminal justice system that trains badly behaved children for a life of crime. It is time for authorities to start listening to the views of young people and act upon them, reducing the risk that they will reoffend – an outcome all victims of crime would wish to see.”