The Prison Act 1952 requires every prison to be monitored by an independent Board appointed by the Secretary of State from members of the community in which the prison or centre is situated.
The Annual Report of the Independent Monitoring Board at HM YOI Cookham Wood Published December 2017 presents a number of findings including those specifically related to questions about whether prisoners are treated humanely. The Independent Monitoring Board found:
Staff are caring, with a sympathetic understanding of the boys’ needs. There is no deliberately inhumane treatment.
But pressures on the system have led to inhumane outcomes for boys this year – in particular, unacceptably long periods of time locked in their cells and reduced access to agency support services.
Thank you Article 39 for raising our attention to this matter: Independent board says child prison “inhumane”
Download: Annual Report of the Independent Monitoring Board at HM YOI Cookham Wood Published December 2017
Related reading
Worth reading Sir Martin Narey’s views (September 2017) about ‘The constant threat of prisoner abuse’:
I’d like to convince you that the potential to abuse, is there in all of us and we need to run penal institutions in that certain knowledge.
Download: Sir Martin Narey addresses Cambridge University students discussing prisons and child neglect
niromp.org 