Custody

INNOVATION: A youth-focused custody suite introduced by Cleveland Police provides separate facilities for young offenders away from potentially damaging influences of adult suspects, and the opportunity to talk to Youth Justice Service ‘custody navigators’ offering engagement and immediate support, in an initiative which is already attracting interest from other forces, as Policing Insight’s Sarah Gibbons reports.

INNOVATION: A new partnership between Merseyside Police and Childline is providing children in custody with an anonymous call to counsellors in an attempt to provide support without direct law enforcement intervention and break the potential cycle of offending, as Policing Insight’s Sarah Gibbons reports.

OPINION: Neurodiverse young people and adults – particularly those with ADHD – may experience a number of traits that are likely to push them towards criminality; Met Police DC Daley Jones, co-chair of the ADHD Alliance, believes asking detainees to complete a simple, 18-step questionnaire could give them an indication that they might have a life-changing condition that can be helped with treatment and care, which may lead them away from offending.

ANALYSIS: A new study from the University of Nottingham presents a highly critical view of how the police detain under-18s in custody across England and Wales; the researchers call for a ‘Child First’ approach that sees detention used only as a last resort, and halves the time children can be held by police, as Policing Insight’s James Sweetland reports.

FEATURE: The City of London Police has become the first UK force to automatically screen custody detainees for ADHD, in a bid to improve understanding and diagnosis as well as identifying the required support; Policing Insight’s Sarah Gibbons looks at the new initiative, and spoke to ADHD Alliance founder DC Daley Jones about the need for greater neurodivergence awareness across the criminal justice system.

ANALYSIS: With inspectorate reports highlighting concerns over the use of anti-rip clothing in police custody, the Independent Custody Visiting Association (ICVA) recently undertook a pilot project with Dyfed Powys Police to improve the monitoring, recording and risk assessments around the use of such clothing, with a long-term aim of ending the measure altogether, as ICVA Interim Chief Executive Sherry Ralph explains.

OPINION: The recent case of Child Q has highlighted the use of strip searches by police, particularly in relation to searches of children and the disproportionate use of the process involving Black, Asian and minority ethnic people; Matteo Tiratelli, Political Sociology Lecturer at UCL, believes the lack of accurate data around strip-searches in the UK underlines the need for a much wider debate about the issue.

FEATURE: The risks around the use of anti-harm suits to prevent custody detainees from ripping material for self-harming have been highlighted in the UK both by inspectorates and the College of Policing; now a new pilot is underway in Dyfed-Powys to identify alternatives to the suits, as well as establish greater consistency around their use, as Ashley Bertie, CEO of the Independent Custody Visiting Association explains.

OPINION: A significant proportion of the 800,000 people detained in police custody in 2019 were children and young people, but Transform Justice Research and Policy Lead Fionnuala Ratcliffe believes that such detentions often lead to unreliable evidence and long-term damage to police legitimacy, and suggests alternatives such as voluntary attendance and out-of-court disposals could prove more effective.

ANALYSIS: The N8 Policing Research Partnership is currently holding the Policing Innovation Forum, focusing on ‘Effective Partnerships in Policing’; At the first session in May, Dr Layla Skinns of the University of Sheffield presented on research on vulnerability in police custody, including the growing role of health care professionals and liaison and diversion, and the concept of ‘universal vulnerability’.

INNOVATION: Camera technology used in healthcare settings and hospitals to monitor a person’s movement, pulse and breathing is being introduced into custody suites in Devon and Cornwall – the first police use of the new high-tech system – after a successful two-year trial.