Child prison secret restraint tactics 'revealed'

Child prison secret restraint tactics 'revealed'

www.bbc.co.uk

Details of techniques described in a manual governing physical restraint in private child prisons have emerged.

Some of the restraint and self-defence techniques detailed in the Observer include placing an "inverted knuckle into the trainee's sternum (breast bone) and drive inward and upward".

Another authorised measure is outlined in a description which reads: "Continue to carry alternate elbow strikes to the young person's ribs until a release is achieved."

(visit the link for the full news article)



[edit on 18-7-2010 by Extralien]

Private prisons for children?

Never heard of them. I'm sure we all know about young offenders prisons, but private ones?

It would appear that these private prisons have been around for quite a while seeing as information is being looked into as far back as 1998.

This sentence is the most worrying, imo;

"deeply disturbing and stands as a state authorisation of institutionalised child abuse".

I wonder how many of these prison 'guards' have children of their own? But then I'm also asking other questions like how many of the private prisons are there? Where are they? Who is behind them?

It doesn't even appear to be a major issue for the BBC as the report is just a small link on their news homepage. It might be just another story that they wish to sweep under the carpet as quickly as possible.



www.bbc.co.uk
(visit the link for the full news article)

WTF ? Private prisons for children, what the hell is going on over there. The goverment is allowing private companies to incarcerate children, and they're being paid to abuse them ? That's just plain wrong.

The newspaper says the manual - Physical Control in Care - was published by the HM Prison Service in 2005 for staff working in secure training centres, run by private firms under government contracts.

Prisons should never be privatized, especially when they inter children. I can just imagine how these kids are going to act when they are released if that's the way they are treated in there. The poeple of England really need to find out what's going on here and raise holy hell about this and put an end to private prisons. Geesh I didn't know there were such things as private prisons


www.bbc.co.uk...


I thought the BBC was supposed to be a good news source, seems to me that they could've delved a little deeper into this story.

reply to post by chise61


I am sure the queen supports these secret prisons

reply to post by chise61


I couldn't agree with you more.

The BBC seems to be skimming the surface.

It reminds me of Pennhurst state and the horrid abuse that whent on there.

I wonder if the children know they are in a private prison?
How are these prisons funded? If they are indeed private then money must be coming in from somewhere. Very possibly from the tax payer. They may bill the government for operating.

After all the abuse by priests that has recently been heard about (again) you'd think that someone, somewhere (with any clout) would have stood up and done something.

I thought all prisons in the UK are privately run?

Anyway, the youngest death in prison was a 14 year old.

That prison was run by this company:



www.abovetopsecret.com...

I wonder if this document is from Serco?





[edit on 18/7/10 by Chadwickus]

reply to post by Chadwickus


Nope, not all prisons are.. just 11

Privately managed prisons were introduced to the UK in the 1990s.

HM Chief Inspectorate of Prisons inspects private prisons in the same way as public sector prisons. See How Prisons are Regulated for more information. All private prisons have a 'Controller' linking them to the Ministry of Justice, and the governors of private prisons are called 'Directors'.

At present there are 11 private prisons contractually managed by private companies such as GSL, Serco and G4S Justice Services.

www.hmprisonservice.gov.uk...

Oddly, the link for Ashfield takes you to a Serco site, but the page gives me a 404 error.
[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/4480515b22e1.png[/atsimg]

New and private prisons

There are eleven privately run prisons in England and Wales. Nine prisons have been financed, designed, built and are run by the private sector under PFI contracts – Dovegate,Altcourse, Ashfield, Forest Bank, Lowdham Grange, Parc, Rye Hill, Bronzefield and Peterborough, the only prison which holds both men and women on the same site. In addition Wolds and Doncaster were built and financed by the public sector but are run by private companies under management-only contracts. Two former privately managed prisons, Blakenhurst and Buckley Hall, are now publicly run. No new prison built since 1992 has been built and financed by the public sector.

Private prisons in England and Wales now account for 11% of the prison population holding around 9,071 prisoners. England and Wales has the most privatised prison system in Europe. Scotland currently has 8% of its prisoners held privately, although this is due to increase in December 2008 with the addition of the 700-cell Addiewell, a second privately financed, designed, built and run prison. Australia has 17% of its prisoners held in private prisons and the USA has 7.2%

www.prisonreformtrust.org.uk...

And to top it all, private prisons are apparently the worst;

Britain's private prisons are performing worse than those run by the state, according to data obtained under the Freedom of Information Act.

The findings, based on the overall performances of 132 prisons in England and Wales, appear to undermine claims by ministers that the greater use of private jails is raising standards for the accommodation of more than 83,000 prisoners held across both sectors.

Separate figures, also released under the right-to-know law, show that nearly twice as many prisoner complaints are upheld in private prisons as they are in state-run institutions.

Prisons for profit: The verdict

*HMP Altcourse, Fazakerley, Liverpool – G4S Justice Services
Opened in 1997, it was the first designed, constructed, managed and financed private prison in the UK.
Rating 3 (Good performance)

*HMP & YOI Ashfield, Gloucestershire – Serco
Opened in 1999, this prison and young offenders institution in Pucklechurch, Gloucestershire, holds up to 400 males aged between 15 and 18.
Rating 2 (requiring development)

*HMP Bronzefield, Ashford, Middlesex – Kalyx (previously UKDS)
Opened in 2004, Bronzefield is the only privately managed, purpose-built prison for women in the UK. It has a 12-bed, Mother and Baby Unit.
Rating 3

*HMP & YOI Doncaster – Serco
Opened in 1994, it houses 1,120 men aged 18 on remand and after sentence. The prison provides education, healthcare and counselling.
Rating 3

*HMP Dovegate, Staffordshire – Serco
Opened in 2001, it accommodates up to 860 adult male prisoners serving sentences of four years to life. A separate 200-bed therapeutic community houses repeat serious offenders.
Rating 3

*HMP & YOI Forest Bank, Pendlebury, Salford – Kalyx
Opened in 2000, it is one of the largest prisons in the UK, holding 1,064 male offenders. It also holds young offenders from Greater Manchester.
Rating 2

*HMP Lowdham Grange, Nottinghamshire – Serco
Opened in 1998, it accommodates up to 628 adult male prisoners serving sentences of more than four years.
Rating 3

*HMP & YOI Parc, Bridgend, South Wales – G4S Justice Services
Opened in 1997, The 1,200-bed Category B Local prison claims to be dedicated to reducing re-offending.
Rating 3

*HMP Rye Hill, Rugby, Warwickshire – G4S Justice Services
Opened in 2001, this training prison holds 660 adult male Category B prisoners sentenced to more than 4 years with 18 months left to serve, including 150 vulnerable prisoners.
Rating 2

*HMP Wolds, Everthorpe, East Yorkshire – G4S Justice Services
Opened in 1992 for remand inmates, the first privately run prison was given a new role in 1993 holding category B sentenced prisoners.
Rating 2

www.independent.co.uk...

reply to post by Extralien


It says they're under government contracts, so the government foots the bill for this abuse which means it's the taxpayers that are really paying for it.

I hear a lot of people from the UK complaining about the youth over there. After seeing this it makes me wonder just how many of those youths out there acting so bad, cutting people up , etc have spent time in one of those "private" prisons. It would seem to me that any troubled youth that spent time being abused like that would come out worse than when they went in. So their own penal system could be part of the problem that they're having with many of these youths.

What really gets me is that if a parent were to treat the child in that manner the government would take their child away from them in a heartbeat, yet the government is allowed to abuse children through a "private prison" .


Thanks for the link to Pennhurst State, I hadn't seen that one I'll definately be looking at the info in that thread.


Edit to add;


Many of those with clout are ultimately the ones behind this kind of thing. The rest either condone it or can't be bothered.

[edit on 7/18/2010 by chise61]

reply to post by Chadwickus


That's scary. Funny that they have such a large number of ex government employees and receive so many government contracts

Looks like I have another thread to check out.

reply to post by chise61


This report, dated 2007, sheds some rather interesting light upon the situation.

...there's a trusted way of spreading spending across 30 years and slashing a prison's running costs, all in one go: the private finance initiative.

While they've been less high profile than the schools and hospitals, Britain already has nine PFI prisons. And in some ways they've been pretty successful. The new jails have been built quickly, and cost a good 15% less to run than their government-owned equivalents.

...Concerns have been raised about both the safety record of PFI prisons, and the effectiveness of their rehabiliation efforts. Prisoners in private jails are more likely to be involved in serious assaults - and more likely to re-offend once they've been released.

One problem is that PFI prisons negotiate their own staff contracts - and thus pay their officers a good 50% less than the state sector. This does a good job of cutting costs. But it means private prisons tend to have fewer, younger, and less experienced warders. They also don't tend to stick around for very long. A 2002 report from a government auditor gloomily concluded that, "The upshot of trimming costs is that safety may be compromised for both staff and prisoners."

An even bigger concern is the effect private prisons may have on criminal justice policy. For one thing, private jailers are paid by the prisoner. This gives them an incentive to pack in as many inmates as possible, encouraging overcrowding.

Even more worryingly, the existance of private prisons may actually stop the government from taking steps to reduce Britain's burgeoning prison population. "What we'd like to see is a shrinking market," says Juliet Lyon, the director of the Prison Reform Trust. "But good business practice demands that you grow your market. A vested interest will develop in having a sizable prison population."

www.newstatesman.com...
Quite an eye opening read and literally exposes this scheme for the scam it is.

reply to post by Extralien


IMO one of the big problems with private prisons is that they must answer to the government while the government prisons must answer to the people. Private prisons should not be allowed to exist.

reply to post by Chadwickus


I just watched that video, WTH did I just watch! Thats one scary video, thanks for sharing it.

This is the first I ever heard about this. No wonder the kids over here are going mental. They do something they shouldn't be in detention for (what happened to a slap on the wrist) then we wonder why they turn into monsters when they come out the other side and only get worse.
There should be no need to restrain a child with the use of pain at the forefront. What exactly are they trying to teach them other than this is how the world works? It doesn't, only the minority of control freaks carry on like this.

I work in the mental health sector and have been trained in pmva training and also breakaway training which has now changed to pain compliance, which has helped me get away from a few life or death situations.
I know this is to do with child prisons but at the end of the day some of these young people are going to be big angry buggers and if i was a woman working in one of these prisons i would want to know how to defend myself.
Just because they are children doesnt mean they cant cause serious harm to another person, also these techniques are to help other people from getting hurt from their fellow peers.
Remember these kids have done something wrong to end up in prison and yes we should help them to become decent people but would you want your wife/sister or your children working in a place like this without decent self defence techniques?

Don't blame the Queen. The US has them also and has had them for years. HERE is one article outlining some of the programs and the the abuse that happens in some of these programs. This article was from Oct 2007.

Of course in Feb of 2009 these types of places really made news in the State of Pennsylvania when it was reported that a couple of judges were taking kickbacks from these private companies to keep sending them kids. Even sentencing one 15 year old to a Wilderness Camp for mocking a school principle on MySpace, which is NOT illegal. Most of the children were also not provided any legal representation as well. You can read all about right HERE

Originally posted by chise61
reply to post by Chadwickus

 

Funny that they have such a large number of ex government employees and receive so many government contracts

Lol, nice one.

Our elected representatives sold us out, not even to the highest bidder, just the best connected.

In the US there are plenty of privately ran institutions similar to this, and I've spent time in a few of them.

This article below is from 1997, and it speaks about the wilderness institute I was in. I was actually there at the time this article was written, I was released June 22 of that year. I actually still have the paper article from then, it was a series of articles on the youth detention services in Arkansas.

I can't say how the system is now, or how it is in other states or countries. But I can say, atleast then, abuse by staff in institutions like this is rampant.

While I was never really abused, I did get open palm slapped by a staff member for "rough housing". He slapped me so hard across the face and ear I heard ringing for atleast a week. I was also witness to quite a few cases of abuse by staff.

This is the article that talks mainly about East Arkansas Wilderness Institute (EAWI)

Wilderness camp woes

"That's Bones. He's one lazy dog," says 15-year-old Antonio.

The Division of Youth Services, or DYS, part of the state Department of Human Services, contracted with AMI in 1992 to take 25 boys at each site -- called wilderness camps -- and rehabilitate them in a noninstitutional environment. Last year, Arkansas spent $2.1 million on the two camps.

AMI officials extol their performance, hailing what they say are the state's lowest recidivism rates and the high numbers of boys who have received their GED certificate.

But state records obtained by the Democrat-Gazette and interviews with the children, camp staffers and DYS officials sketch a different picture. They suggest a system out of control, riddled with incidents of physical abuse and barbaric punishment that had not been communicated to the local AMI board.

Children and ex-staffers said they have been hogtied, forced to sleep naked in rainy, 40-degree weather, and compelled to chop wood with axes weighing as much as 55 pounds for 12 hours a day, weeks on end, till their hands bled.

Bill Hoffman, an AMI vice president at Tampa headquarters, acknowledged one incident of hogtying at one of the camps, but insisted that AMI fired an employee after verifying that and other incidents of abuse. He denied that the Arkansas camps use overweighted axes or require that kids chop wood all day. Rather, he said children who misbehave are sometimes forced to chop wood for a couple of hours to "adjust their attitude."

I can say that is true. The day you get there you are put into what they call "O Camp" or orientation camp. During those first three days they would cut your hair off boot camp style, then give you a 50-75lb axe and have you chop wood for 3 days from 6:30am until 9:30pm with a 10 minute break every hour. Their "philosophy" was its easier to show you and let you learn what your punishment would be, instead of seeing the punishment, you learned it.

My hands bled pretty bad that day. A few of the other guys that were already on "contract" (punishment = chopping wood for days) suggested a way to get the metal axe pole to glide through my hands and not cause me to bleed was to douse some water on my hands.

Big mistake, the bastards. I think it was the first chop I made after wetting my hands tore the skin off my hand like it was held on by velcro, that sucked.

There were also plenty of times when you were forced to sleep outside, sometimes tied or shackled to a tree in what they called "A Camp". If you really messed up, instead of just chopping wood all day, you did it in an orange jump suit and had to sleep out there at night. Before I got there it was deemed, I don't know unethical I guess, to not have atleast a small cabin. So instead of sleeping on the ground shackled to a tree you slept in a virtual outhouse, shackled.

This article, was I believe the first in the series, and talks about things that went on at Central Arkansas Observation and Assessment center (CAOA).

Welcome to hell

I was here on 3 different occasions. It was a short term facility that would determine based on tests they gave you, your crime, and your criminal history what type of facility you should be placed in. From rehab, to local community programs, long term community programs, Alexander (the virtual youth prison), or wilderness camps.

Over the 3 times I was there a total of probably 6-7 months. The first time I was placed in a local community based program, the second I went to Alexander, and the third I went to a wilderness facility.

This place was one of the scariest places I've ever been, and I have been to jail as an adult quite a few times.

It was the former jail for North Little Rock Arkansas that had been converted to use for juveniles. It was the closest thing to a prison I'd ever been to, by the look of the place (which it was virtually a prison, being a former jail) and the atmosphere and mentality of the people there.

While I was there I think there were around 3-4 deaths. Atleast 2 being a definate suicide and one being surrounded in some controversy.

There were numerous riots with upwards of 30-40 kids fighting at a time. I watched some pretty severe beatings, from using soap in socks to bashing a guy with a tv and the cell door.

Overall I was glad they closed O&A. When you entered there you really had to become a different person to survive.

And Bones, well Bones was a lazy dog. I still have pictures of him around here somewhere.

What parents are allowing this to take place. OMG, the judge would be told that I will going down the list of what to do, the end result would busting my kid out and WE"RE SOVEREIGNS, his behavior would seen as any psyco in a movie, with goon psyco gangs behind them.

What parent would allow a child to be sentenced for BADMOUTHING the principle. I would get a BULLHORN and badmouth with him and the judge would be really really wondering he felt persecuted, exposed etc.

Like does anyone NO HOW TO SAY ABSOLUTELY NO to evil?

Stand up for each other. Even if you can't take the world on your shoulders, how about citizens policing human rights abuses within a 100 mile radius and Acting enmasse to oppose abuses.


THe solutions to the whole mess is comunities meeting up, talking about issues and becoming real supporters of each other, and never never never allowign them to get away with abusing children, abusing justice, shutting down co-ops or farms or taking their stock, all the things they're doing need to be permanently watched over and met and coutnered by the people. Its going to take some time to understand how this is going on because there are laws protecting citizens and children in these countries, so how did they manage to bypass them?

So when the kid got sentenced to prison for badmouthing the principal, did no one storm the authorities demanding release. THey just let a crime against one of their own stand and be carried out?

You never can allow this and its time people take some time off work enmasse and straighten the world they live in out because being asleep at the wheel is child abuse to the next generation.

You dont tolerate bad guys fascists running systems or making decisions. I dont support jduges or court systems to begin with, never ever have. Who are they? Who put them there? THere is nothing over my head, and I don't give empowerment to this. I don't care if 99,99% of the others are stupid that they decided they were slaves, thats their insanity, it still didn't broach my soveriengity. Now, the movement is to get, in your community, people watching the system. It needs some massive changes.

THese guys would all be facing massive law suits, and stalking with bullhorns. A group could even get private investations done on them and expose them for their "crimes" in the process too. When people group up there are many many options to discuss.

All I read aobut on the news or on forums is what horrors and abuses are taking place. My question, what are we doing about it? Everytime this happens and Action card is played.

[edit on 19-7-2010 by Unity_99]

Ex-US judge pleads guilty to child prison scam

Astonishing.

Some of the children were shackled, denied lawyers, and pulled from their homes for offences which included stealing change from cars and failure to appear as witnesses.

A story like this raises its ugly head just after we had been discussing the child prisons in the UK.

When will we learn? When will the system change in order to prevent such scams, cruelty and down right corruption?

How does that saying go? "Money is the route to all evils"??