'Disturbing' secret manual reveals brutal methods used on youths held in child prisons
A government manual instructing prison staff on how to inflict pain on teenage inmates was today labelled 'state authorised child abuse'.
The Ministry of Justice was forced to release details of its approved 'restraint and (Was it like some kind of a journalistic headlock, do you think?) self-defence techniques' for children in secure training centres after a lengthy freedom of information battle.
The secret manual, Physical Control In Care, authorises staff to 'use an inverted knuckle into the trainee's sternum and drive inward and upward.' It adds: 'Continue to carry alternate elbow strikes to the young person's ribs until a release is achieved.'
The document, written in 2005 but classified as secret, also tells staff to 'drive straight fingers into the young person's face, and then quickly drive the straightened fingers of the same hand downwards into the young person's groin area.'
Instructions to staff warn that the techniques risk giving children a 'fracture to the skull' and 'temporary or permanent blindness caused by rupture to eyeball or detached retina'. The guidance, designed to cope with unruly children, also acknowledges that the measures could cause asphyxia.
One passage, explaining how to administer a head-hold on children, adds that 'if breathing is compromised the situation ceases to be a restraint and becomes a medical emergency'. Carolyne Willow, national co-ordinator of the Children's Rights Alliance for England, said: 'The manual is deeply disturbing and stands as state authorisation of institutionalised child abuse. What made former ministers believe that children as young as 12 could get so out of control so often that staff should be taught how to ram their knuckles into their rib cages? Would we allow paediatricians, teachers or children's home staff to be trained in how to deliberately hurt and humiliate children?'
The campaign for publication began following the deaths of Gareth Myatt and Adam Rickwood. Gareth, 15, died while being held down by three staff at Rainsbrook Secure Training Centre in Warwickshire. he choked on his own vomit and died. In the same year, 2004, 14-year-old Adam, from Burnley, hanged himself at the Hassockfield Secure Training Centre in County Durham.
Phillip Noyes, director of strategy and development at the NSPCC, said: 'These shocking revelations graphically illustrate the cruel and degrading violence inflicted at times on children in custody. 'On occasions these restraint techniques have resulted in children suffering broken arms, noses, wrists and fingers. Painful restraint is a clear breach of children's human rights against some of the most vulnerable youngsters in society and does not have a place in decent society.'
A Ministry of Justice spokesman said the techniques were used 'very infrequently'. She added: 'For young people under 18, the use of restraint is a last resort. But where young people's behaviour puts themselves or others at serious risk, staff need to be able to intervene effectively, to protect the safety of all involved.'
"We only stab inmates in the eyes with our fingers when we really have to." What a surprise. And there were we all thinking that the Catholic Church had the monopoly on brutality, abuse and woeful neglect of the young and vulnerable. Of course, there's no sexual abuse in State care homes and prisons either, its only Catholic Priests that do that, isn't it?
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