'Flawed sentencing' responsible for
teenager's suicide
The death of a teenage boy in a young offenders'
institution revealed that vulnerable children are repeatedly being
locked up "in unsafe penal institutions", the High Court was told this
week.
A flawed sentencing regime could be said to have
caused the suicide of 16-year-old Joseph Scholes, said a QC, and there
was "overwhelming evidence" of a "chronic, systemic problem". The accusations came as Joseph's mother, Yvonne
Scholes, asked a judge to overturn the Home Secretary's refusal to hold
a public inquiry into why the penal system failed her son.
Joseph was just nine days into a two-year sentence for
a series of street robberies when he hanged himself at Stoke Heath Young
Offenders' Institution, near Market Drayton, Shropshire, in March 2002.
He had been living in a children's home when the
robberies occurred, and had been diagnosed by a specialist in adolescent
psychiatry as suffering from a conduct disorder with possible morbid
depressive illness. He was described as "very vulnerable".
Two weeks before he was sentenced, he slashed his face
more than 30 times.
Mrs Scholes, from Meliden, near Prestatyn, has since
fought a campaign for radical reform of the juvenile justice system. Today her QC, Tim Owen, told Mr Justice Bennett at
London's High Court: "If asked to say what was the principle cause of
Joseph's death, it would be hardly surprising that the answer would be
given: the sentencing regime."
Mrs Scholes argues that her son, who had a history of
suicide attempts, was so vulnerable that he should never have been sent
to a young offenders' institution (YOI), but should have gone to a
secure children's home. A lack of resources and places meant he was denied the
support which could have been provided in a secure home and saved his
life, she says.
Mr Owen said the 10-day inquest into Joseph's death in
April last year did not consider the Government's sentencing policy, or
the extent to which policy decisions and lack of resources resulted in
him being detained in a "wholly unsuitable" YOI, rather than a secure
children's home.
The coroner who conducted the inquest ruled that those
questions were outside the scope of the inquest, and called for a public
inquiry. But his recommendation was rejected by the then home
secretary David Blunkett in September last year, a decision confirmed in
December. Mr Blunkett decided instead to invite three separate
bodies to look at the issues raised, in isolation and in private, with
limited involvement from Joseph's family.
Mr Owen said this was an inadequate response and did
not meet the Government's obligations under Article 2 of the European
Convention on Human Rights, which protects "the right to life".
Where lives were lost in state institutions, there had
to be an investigation "capable of identifying any shortcomings in the
legislative, administrative and regulatory system designed to protect
the right to life", said Mr Owen. Such an investigation had not yet taken place.
Mr Owen said Stoke Heath YOI "was wholly unsafe in the
light of Joseph's known vulnerabilities". The QC stressed he was not criticising the Stoke Heath
staff, but the almost-unanimous evidence given at the inquest was that
the institution was "structurally unsuitable" for vulnerable teenagers
like Joseph. He said: "There is overwhelming evidence that the
circumstances in which Joseph came to be detained in Stoke Heath YOI
exemplify a chronic, systemic problem rather than an isolated,
individual aberration.
"The problem is a sentencing regime - embracing both
sentencing policy and the conditions under which sentences are served -
which repeatedly causes vulnerable children, especially 15 to
17-year-old boys, to be locked up in unsafe institutions."
Joseph was sentenced at Manchester Crown Court to a
two-year detention and training order in March 2002 after he admitted
three street robberies. At the time he lived in a children's home in Sale and
was said to be "on the periphery" of the robberies. He was part of a
group of children from the home who robbed a number of other children.
Mrs Scholes has marched to Downing Street with other
campaigners in her bid to reform the penal system. The Howard League for Penal Reform is supporting
today's application for a judicial review. They point to the fact that a public inquiry has been
supported by more than 100 MPs, members of the House of Lords, the
General Synod of the Church of England, and the Parliamentary Joint
Committee on Human Rights. Other supporters include the former chief inspector of
prisons Sir David Ramsbotham, the Children's Commissioner for Wales, and
a broad range of penal reform, child welfare and human rights
organisations and agencies.
The matter has also been debated on a number of
occasions this year in both Houses of Parliament, most recently by the
Home Affairs Select Committee in a special session on prison
overcrowding and suicides on November 8.
The current Home Secretary Charles Clarke, who
succeeded Mr Blunkett, is defending his predecessor's decision not to
order a public inquiry. His legal team argues that the inquest into Joseph's
death - attended by 50 witnesses - was "extremely wide ranging" and
fulfilled the Government's legal obligations under Article 2.
The fact that three separate investigations were
ordered "to implement the lessons learned from Joseph's death" did not
mean that the Home Secretary accepted the inquest was inadequate.
Article 2 did not require investigation of the wider
policy and resources issues raised by Joseph's mother.
However the Home Secretary had referred the
circumstances in which Joseph had received a custodial sentence to the
Sentencing Guidelines Council. A former assistant chief inspector of social services
had also examined youth custody operational issues. Thirdly, the Youth Justice Board had taken Joseph's
case into account in exploring the adequacy of custody arrangements for
vulnerable young offenders.
A number of inquiries and investigations had
immediately followed Joseph's death, including an independent review, a
Prison Service investigation and an internal investigation by the Youth
Justice Board.
Overall, there had been "a sufficient element of
public scrutiny" to safeguard the mother's interests. The hearing was to
continue yesterday (Thursday, December 1).
Jon Land
1 December 2005
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