Prison cells being used as substitute for care services, HMIC

By The Press Association10th March 2015News EnglandCare Standards, Mental Health, News England, Vulnerable Adults

Children, the mentally unwell and other vulnerable people are being locked in cells because police custody is being used as a substitute for social and health care, inspectors have said.

The majority of people detained by the police were reasonably well cared for but inconsistency of practices led on occasion to poor treatment, Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary (HMIC) found.

Measures of control available to the police are designed more for those who are violent through ill-will rather than for children or mentally ill, the inspectors added.

And data from police forces suggest that people from African-Caribbean groups were disproportionately represented in the number of detentions and strip-searches when compared to the general population.

HM inspector of constabulary Dru Sharpling said: “There can be no argument that the needs of a child, left abandoned by his or her parents, or a person in the midst of a mental health crisis, are often very different to those of a serial offender.

“Yet the bricks and mortar of the police cells do not and cannot make that distinction.

“I think the public would be surprised to learn that police cells are very often full of vulnerable adults and children, rather than suspects accused of serious crimes.

“I am particularly concerned to find that on occasions when officers were left with no other option, they resorted to detaining vulnerable people in police custody in order to get them the support they needed.”

Frontline police officers and custody officers are spending significant amounts of time on caring for people who are mentally unwell, inspectors said, but poor data has hindered the ability of the police to identify how vulnerable people are treated in custody.

College of Policing lead for crime and criminal justice Dave Tucker said: “The HMIC has found that demands placed on frontline police officers and custody staff by people who have a significant need for mental health care and treatment were highly apparent in every force inspected.

“While health, social care and children’s services can and do refuse to admit vulnerable people into their care, the police do not have this option.

“Too often police are being used as the service of first resort, rather than the service of last resort and it’s encouraging that HMIC acknowledge that police custody should not be the default option for vulnerable people in need of care.”

Home Secretary Theresa May said: “I commissioned Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary to conduct this inspection because I was concerned about the welfare of vulnerable children and adults, including those from black and minority ethnic backgrounds, in police custody.

“I welcome today’s report which makes clear how much remains to be done to ensure that those who end up in police cells, especially those in custody for their own safety, receive proper treatment and respect.

“I have always been clear that the use of force must be lawful, proportionate and necessary in all the circumstances, that people experiencing a mental health crisis should receive health-based care and support rather than being held in a police cell, and that children who are charged with an offence should be transferred to suitable local authority accommodation instead of being detained overnight in custody.

“Working with police forces, we already have a range work under way to tackle some of the issues HMIC have highlighted, including improving data collection on the use of police powers in relation to people with mental ill health and the use of force, as well as reviewing police training on these issues.

“We will review HMIC’s findings and recommendations carefully to see how they can inform this work, and respond in due course.”

Deputy Chief Constable Nicholas Ephgrave, who is the national policing lead for custody, said: “We are pleased that HMIC’s report acknowledges that the vast majority of vulnerable people detained by police are treated respectfully. It also recognises that more needs to be done by our partners in health and social services to prevent vulnerable people ending up in police custody: an outcome which rarely serves the best interests of children, people with mental ill health or dementia.

“We will work with the Home Office, the College of Policing and partners such as Health and Wellbeing Boards and Local Safeguarding Boards on the recommendations to ensure that when vulnerable people do need to be held in police custody, they are treated sensitively and appropriately, and that appropriate detail regarding all aspects of their detention is recorded.”

Meanwhile, the report also found police were being called by parents or staff at children’s homes when they could not cope with a youngster’s behaviour.

The report said: “Police officers we spoke to told us that they were called frequently to deal with incidents where parents or children’s homes could not cope with a child’s disruptive behaviour and sought to use the police as a way to discipline children.”

Among the incidents in which children were arrested included one of two sisters detained following a fight over a TV remote control and a 17-year-old held for pushing his stepfather and damaging a garden fence.

“Inspectors were particularly concerned to find that when force policies required officers to take ‘positive action’ in response to reports of domestic abuse, this was interpreted in some forces as always requiring an arrest, even for children,” the report added.

Inappropriate use of police custody

The report has highlighted a number of cases of poor practice where children, the mentally unwell and vulnerable people have been detained in police custody.

Examples include:

:: A young man who was arrested for assault on his father during a schizophrenic episode spent 40 hours in police custody while he waited for a mental health hospital bed to become available. In the end officers took him to an accident and emergency unit because they were so concerned for his safety.

:: A 90-year-old man who was suffering from dementia and had become violent towards staff in a residential care home, which did not meet his needs, was detained overnight in police custody.

:: A physically frail detainee whose first language was not English and who was on prescribed medication spent 34 hours in custody because of delays in seeing a medical practitioner, and waiting for an appropriate adult.

:: Two girls aged 14 and 15 who were detained overnight received very little support from staff and, when this was queried by an inspector, the reply was: “Well, they’ve been around the block a few times and a few hours in a police cell won’t mean that much to them.”

:: A 13-year-old girl arrived at a custody suite in handcuffs after being transported from another custody suite where she had been detained for some time. The youngster had been escorted by three male officers in the back of a secure van despite her appearing to pose only a minimal risk.

:: Teenage girls reported “degrading” and “unnecessary” experiences of being strip-searched in custody and one detainee said they had to “bend over on all fours like a dog”.

:: A 13-year-old boy who had been in care since he was six years old was arrested for common assault on his 11-year-old sister and kept in custody for more than 10 hours.

:: Two 17-year-olds, one of whom had never been in custody before, were booked in at 11pm, and no attempt was made to seek an appropriate adult until after 9am the following morning, even though one appeared fearful and was potentially vulnerable.