24th April 2013

The Chief Inspector of Prisons publishes its report of an unannounced inspection of HMYOI Hindley.

In response, Deborah Coles, co-director of INQUEST said:

“It is deeply worrying that the inspection found that the initial good learning following the death of 17 year old Jake Hardy in January 2012 had not been sustained. This reiterates our concern that the framework to ensure ongoing practice change and learning following any death in custody is urgently reformed.

“The Inspectorate finding about the high number of self harm incidents and high level of use of force again raises serious questions about the efficacy of the use of prison for vulnerable children and young people. We repeat our call for an urgent independent review of the treatment of children and young people in conflict with the law.”

Ends

Notes to editors:

1. INQUEST has been working with the family of Jake Hardy since his death in January 2012.
2. There have been three deaths of young people at HMYOI Hindley since 2002. There have been 143 deaths of children and young people under the age of 21 since 2000.
3. INQUEST is calling for an independent review of the deaths of children and young people in prison and in October 2012 published Fatally Flawed, an evidence-based report examining recent deaths of children and young people and whether lessons are being learned from those deaths.
4. INQUEST’s 2012 report Learning from death in custody inquestshighlights the urgent need for a national framework to properly implement learning from evidence gathered during the investigation and inquest process.
5. The inspection report is available on the Prisons Inspectorate website