G4S and Serco in illegal restraint of children in custody

[David Guyatt]

Bullying in other words. I like the title "Youth Justice Board" who covered up injustice to youth. As usual, it simply turns the name/title upside down to what it really does - like the "Ministry of Defence" which engages in foreign wars.

G4S and Serco pay out £100,000 in youth restraint claims

Fourteen say unlawful measures used on them as children, with cases coming to light after deaths of two teenagers

• Eric Allison and Simon Hattenstone
  
• The Guardian, Friday 24 October 2014 19.46 BST
  

Adam Rickwood, who killed himself in 2004 after being unlawfully restrained by four adult carers at Hassockfield STC, Durham. Photograph: PA

Fourteen children who were assaulted by G4s and Serco staff while being detained in secure training centres (STCs) between 2004 and 2008 have received damages following a Guardian investigation.
Neither company has admitted liability, but they have paid out almost £100,000 in compensation to the complainants who are now adults.
The Guardian investigation followed a public outcry caused by the deaths in 2004 of Gareth Myatt and Adam Rickwood in the STCs. Myatt, aged 15, died after being unlawfully restrained by three officers in Rainsbrook STC, near Rugby. He had been restrained for refusing to clean a sandwich toaster, which he said he had not used.
Myatt was 1.47m (4ft 10in) and weighed 41.3kg (6st 7lb). One restraining officer was 1.85m (6ft 1in) and 101.6kg (16st). When he told the restraining officers he couldn't breathe one replied: "Well, if you are shouting, you can breathe."
Rickwood, 14, killed himself after being unlawfully restrained by four adult carers at Hassockfield STC, where he had been on remand for just over a month on wounding charges. Officers unlawfully restrained him using a "nose-distraction" technique (severe tweaking) after he refused to go to his room.
The families of Myatt and Rickwood discovered that in all four STCs in England and Wales staff were routinely using force to discipline children. That is against the terms of their contracts with government, which stated that force can only be used as a last resort, to prevent injury or damage.
Four years ago, the Guardian received irrefutable evidence that children continued to be restrained for non-compliance in STCs and young offender institutions long after the deaths of Myatt and Rickwood. The Guardian contacted lawyers Bhatt Murphy, who began to seek legal redress for the children concerned.
By 2012, the Guardian had traced the whereabouts of 20 children whom we believed had been unlawfully restrained in STCs, 16 boys and four girls. STCS have been criticised for their expense (£178,000 a year per head), their aggressive culture and the high recidivism rate of the children detained in them.
Of the boys the Guardian traced, 15 were back in prison and one in Pakistan, where he had been sent by his parents to stop him getting in trouble with the law again. Two of the girls were dead. One, Cara Burke, was murdered and mutilated by a drug dealer in Brazil in 2009. She was 17. The other, Shanice Paris Goff, aged 18, jumped to her death from the 17th floor of her London tower block in April 2012. She had been released from an STC the previous year after serving a three-year sentence for robbery. Two police officers had arrived to arrest her for breaching her licence conditions. She asked to go to the bedroom to change her clothes and plunged to her death.
The Youth Justice Board (YJB) is responsible for protecting children in custody, but it gave conflicting and contradictory guidance on when force was appropriate. In 2008, it even tried to rush through an amendment to the STC rules which made the use of force for good order and discipline lawful.
In 2012, The charity Children's Rights Alliance England (CRAE) launched a high court action to force the YJB to disclose the names of children who had been unlawfully restrained, for non-compliance in STCs. The case came before Mr Justice Foskett. He eventually ruled against CRAE, but his judgement contained scathing criticism of the unlawful use of restraint in STCs. "During a prolonged period, restraint techniques were used in these STCs for unlawful purposes … There is no escaping the conclusion that the monitoring of STCs by the YJB appointed monitors failed to identify and/or act in relation to the unlawful use of restraint."
One of the 14 claimants represented by Bhatt Murphy said: "I was there to help me obey the law, but instead the STC staff themselves acted unlawfully by physically abusing me again and again."
In its letter of apology the YJB said: "We regret that in secure training centres until 2008 force was used in circumstances which we and the STC providers now know were unlawful. The YJB would like to say sorry to any young person who was subjected to unlawful restraint in these circumstances."
Despite the YJB's insistence that unlawful restraint stopped in 2008, last year the Guardian reported that five teenage inmates at Hindley young offender institution, Wigan, suffered broken limbs while being restrained in 2012. One inmate had his wrists broken twice, while being restrained by the same prison officer. In all bar one case, the restraint was used for non-compliance.
Last year, Rainsbrook became the first STC to start using a new system of restraint called minimising and managing physical restraint (MMPR). All penal institutions holding children are expected to operate MMPR by 2015. The manual depicting the system's techniques has 182 redactions. Only government officials, custody officers, and a select group of experts know what ministers have authorised.
Earlier this year, children's rights campaigner Carolyne Willow made a freedom of information request to the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) to see the unredacted version of the manual. The request was refused on the grounds that inmates may study the manual and develop countermeasures to restraint.
Last month, Willow went to the high court to ask that the MoJ be made to disclose the manual without redactions. Judgment was reserved until the end of October.
In July this year, Hassockfield STC, where Adam Rickwood died, was inspected by the Prisons Inspectorate. A questionnaire at the end of the report revealed that 50% of the detainees reported being restrained at the centre.

[Magda Hassan]

GS5 and Serco are continuously found to be committing criminal acts and they continuously have their contracts renewed and can apply for new tenders and go on and on forever as if nothing ever happened. And they charge a bloody fortune for it and make a nice profit out their misery.

[David Guyatt]

I wonder what back handers have been paid/future employment agreements reached/to be dispensed favours contracted?

It's almost back to front? The worse you perform you more chance of reward you receive?

Serco given Yarl's Wood immigration contract despite vast failings'



Home Office slammed for new Serco deal

NIGEL MORRIS , RACHAEL PELLS

Monday 24 November 2014

The Home Office has been condemned after it renewed a private security giant's contract to run a controversial women's immigration detention centre where staff have been accused of sexual misconduct.

The decision to pay £70m to Serco to operate Yarl's Wood in Bedfordshire over the next eight years was attacked by MPs, refugee groups and penal reformers.Yarl's Wood, Britain's largest detention centre for women facing deportation, has suffered a succession of damaging allegations since Serco began managing the facility in 2007.
As well as the sexual misconduct claims, they include accusations that women have been locked up for long spells and pregnant detainees held without justification.
Two staff members were fired for engaging in sexual activity with a detainee, while a third was sacked for failing to act when the detainee reported the incident, it emerged last year.
Eleven months ago Serco, which also runs prisons, asylum seekers' accommodation and supervision schemes for offenders, agreed to repay about £68.5m after overcharging the Ministry of Justice for contracts to fit electronic tags.

Almost nine in ten of those held at Yarl's Wood are women, yet around half of the staff are male (Getty)
The Home Office said the company had emerged as the preferred contractor following a "comprehensive re-tendering process". A spokesman said: "Serco's bid demonstrated its offer was the best in meeting quality and cost criteria and providing value for money for the taxpayer."
But Yvette Cooper, the shadow Home Secretary, said the contract should not have been renewed until a full independent inquiry had been held into the centre's operation.
"It is important immigration rules are enforced, but they must be enforced in a humane way that upholds the values of our society. Too often Serco's Yarl's Wood operation appears to have fallen below the high standards we would expect," she said.
Julian Huppert, a Liberal Democrat member of the Commons Home Affairs Select Committee, said: "I think this calls into question the entire process for private management of establishments like this, especially given how few companies bid for these contracts."

Yarl's Wood opened in 2001, with 900 inmates. It now has 400, mostly women, after fire destroyed half the facility (Reuters)
Andrew Neilson, director of campaigns at the Howard League for Penal Reform, said: "Serco's reputation has not recovered from the scandal where, alongside G4S, it was found to be overcharging the taxpayer for tagging people in the criminal justice system.
Natasha Walter, of Women for Refugee Women, said: "We have spoken directly to women who say they were abused by Serco staff in Yarl's Wood, and we have heard how women's privacy is constantly invaded by male staff in the detention centre.
"Serco is clearly unfit to manage a centre where vulnerable women are held and it is unacceptable that the Government continues to entrust Serco with the safety of women who are survivors of sexual violence.
Lisa Matthews, the co-ordinator of the human rights organisation Right to Remain, said: "The Home Office has repeatedly re-awarded enforcement contracts to companies with proven track-records of vast failings, abuse and injustice. Rewarding failure allows these companies to act with impunity."
Earlier this year, a UN investigator was blocked from entering Yarl's Wood despite repeated requests. Prison inspectors found many detainees, none of whom have been charged with an offence, have been held for long periods, including one for almost four years, as well of cases of women with mental health problems being detained.
They also discovered that pregnant women had been held without evidence of exceptional circumstances required to justify their captivity.
One of the women had been admitted to hospital twice because of pregnancy-related complications.
Serco said that it would introduce "a series of innovations and improvements" following the award of the contract.
James Thorburn, the company's managing director of home affairs, said: "We understand the challenges of looking after vulnerable and concerned people and we recognise the responsibility that we have in managing the centre in a caring and efficient manner."

Theresa May, of the twice bungled appointment of the chairperson for the Westminster paedophile inquiry, must've signed off on this renewed contract? Speaks volumes don't you think? Either it's bungling on a vast scale or it's something altogether more unpleasant, I would say...

[Magda Hassan]

Like here the political parties are so ideologically driven with hatred of any thing 'public' and blind love for anything 'private'. Corporations can do no wrong no matter how bad they perform and what crimes they commit. Just the mere existence of a government utility is in itself a grievous affront to Tories.