No More Prison | Child Abuse - The British State's Continued Guilt

Killed by Britain's Prison's in 2004 ................Tina Bromley, 37, died HMP Edmunds Hill 4 January.........Harold Shipman, 57, died HMP Wakefield 13 January..........April Sherman, 27, died HMP Edmunds Hill 13 Jan.........Phillip Taylor, 32, died HMP Blakenhurst 14 January.........Philip Rustell, 19, died HMP Reading 17 January.........James Skelly, 18, died HMYOI Portland 17 January..........Craig Roach, 28, died HMP Exeter 18 January.........Vincent Palmer, 37 , died HMP Woodhill 22 January.........Kevin Murby, 47, died HMP Nottingham 23 January...........Stephen Chamber, 31, died HMP Preston 26 January..........Paul Pitts, 29, died HMP Stafford 2 February.........Terry Sawford, 23, died HMP Nottingham 4 February.........Ricky Sears, 42, died HMP Wandsworth 07 February.........Vincent Morgan, 42 , died HMP Gloucester 10 Feb.........Thomas Burns, 24 , died HMP Gloucester 15 February.........Daniel Tull, 56 , died HMP Ramby 16 February...........Sajjad Hussain, 20 , died HMYOI Lancaster Farms Feb...........Ian Deans, 35 , died HMP Holme House 20 February..........Fausal Zahid, 27, died HMP Canterbury 21 February..........Steve Martin, 47, died HMP Belmarsh 24 February...........Anthony Richards, 37, died HMP Gloucester 28 Feb..........Anwar Islam, 36, died HMP Long Lartin 28 February.........Brian Carter, 34, died HMP Shrewsbury 4 March...........Christopher Ollerenshaw, 22, HMP Leicester March...........Stanley Denyer, 47, died HMP Lewes 8 March..........Kingsley Llewellyn, 29, died HMP Norwich 14 March.........Brendon Smith, 28, died HMP Wymott 23 March.........Abidemi Folarin, 35, died HMP Brixton 25 March..........Shaun Brown, 34, died HMP Preston 27 March.........Sheena Kotecha, 22, died HMP Brockhill 3 April.........Stephen Lloyd, 25, died HMP Frankland 15 April.........Michael Minishull, 45, died HMP Liverpool 16 April..........Julie Hope, 35, died HMP Holloway 17 April.........Louise Davis, 32, died HMP New Hall 18 April.........Paige Tapp, 23, died HMP Send 18 April...........Gareth Myatt, 15, died while be restrained by three prison officers, Rainsbrook Child Prison, 19 April..........Lawrence Mellon, 43, died HMP Woodhill 28 April...........Sharon Miller, 45, died HMP Durham 8 May..........William Butterfield, 61, died HMP Shrewsbury 8 May.........Heather Wait, 28, died HMP Holloway 8 May..........Steven Green, 35, died HMP Leicester 15 May.........Spencer Smith, 30, died HMP Blakenhurst 18 May..........Nicholas Bailey, 59, died HMP Lewes 19 May...........William Hunter, 25, died HMP Durham 24 May..........David Harpe, 39, died HMP Lincoln 25 May.........Rebecca Smith, 40, died HMP Buckley Hall 1 June...........Mark Fulton, died Maghaberry Prison, 10 June..........Carl Baker, 36, died HMP Nottingham 11 June..........Stuart Horgan, 39, died HMP Woodhill 20 June...........Andrew Williams, 29, died HMP Manchester 21 June...........Andrew Elliott, 43, died HMP Manchester 23 June..........Paul Bartropp, 36, died HMP Pentonville 25 June..........Richard Webb, 33, died HMP Manchester 3 July...........Lyton Setterfield, 36, died HMP Highdown 7 July...........Edward Orr, 46, died HMP Liverpool 26 July.........Rebecca Turner, 22, HMP Low Newton 28 July...........Stephen Ram, 28, died HMP Blakenhurst 28 July.........Marie Walsh, 29, HMP New Hall 29 July..........Jason Cressey, 29, died HMP Wormwood 7 August.........Jamie Leigh, 27, died HMP Birmingham 8 August..........Jason Alldis, 33, died HMP Elmley 8 August.........Adam Rickwood, 14, Hassockfield Child Prison 9 August...........Brendan Flynn, 28, died HMP Wakefield 11 August...........Michael Briggs, 41, died HMP Leeds 12 August..........Robert Finch, 45, died HMP Exeter 14 August...........Lee Nottingham, 30, died HMP Shrewsbury 19 August...........Stephen Badaj, 39, died HMP Dartmoor 23 August.............Benjamin Gibson, 19, died HMP Norwich 25 August...........Steven Hush, 44, died HMP Acklington 26 August.............Richard Carter, 33, died HMP Leeds 26 August............Abdul Omar, 28, died HMP Wormwood Scrubs, August.............Stephen Woods, 23, died HMP Bullingdon 28 August...........Phillip Parvin, 30, died HMP Shrewsbury 31 August...........Mark Keeling, 31, died HMP Shrewsbury 1 September.............Shaun Hazelhurst, 28, died HMP Manchester 4 Sept...........Patrick Kilty, 32, died HMP Manchester 04 September.............Kenneth Morris, 50, died HMP Acklington 17 Sept............Anthony Dunne, 19, died HMP/YOI Rochester Sept.............Raymond Goodwin, 44, died HMP Norwich 27 Sept...........hah Rahman, 23, died HMP Brixton 28 September............Raymond Horrocks, 24, died HMP Wakefield 29 Sept.........John Baxter, 25, HMP Hull 3 October.........Stephen Davis, 49, HMP Pentonville 10 October.........David Hull, 32, died HMP Kingston 12 October...........Mandy Pearson, 37, died HMP Newhall 12 October.........Damien McCrae, 26, died HMP Manchester 13 October...........Mairi Taylor, 20, Cornton vale Prison, 13 October .........Katherine Jones, 19, HMP Brockhill 15 October.........John Manana, 24, died HMP Leicester 15 October...........Andrew Mackintosh, 49 Aberdeen Prison, 18th October...........Andrew Maguire, 34, died HMP Durham 21 October...........Paul Calvert, 40, HMP Pentonville 24 October..........Jason Thompson, 26, died HMYOI Werrington 1 Nov.........Michael Arthurs, died Peterhead Prison, 14 November ...........Daniel Sawford, 22, died HMP Lincoln 16 November.........Roman Piho, 33, died HMP Wormwood Scrubs 23 Nov.........Robert Robertson, died Barlinnie 12 December.........Name Withheld, 49, died Maghaberry Prison 12 December.........Mark Franks, 31, died HMP Liverpool 13 December...........Derek Crook, died Castle Huntly Prison

Child Abuse - The British State's continued Guilt

By: John Bowden. (Noranside Prison. Scotland)

Britain has a long and pernicious history of abusing and brutalizing working class children confined to state institutions, so it was hardly surprising recently when a statutory instrument amending the rules governing the treatment of children in "secure training centres" legitimized the use of so-called "physical control in care restraint techniques", one of which authorized staff to inflict blows to the face of children, euphemistically called the "nose distraction technique".

Of course the use of overt physical violence to control socially marginalized and powerless children in penal-type institutions is nothing new and for decades Borstals and Detention Centres operated regimes that were intrinsically brutal and designed to teach a "tough lesson" based on fear and intimidation. The death of a child in the notorious Reading Detention Centre in the late sixties partially exposed the regime of terror that operated in such places, although the state was always careful to maintain the illusion that it neither sanctioned or created the violence routinely inflicted on children in such custodial settings. More recently the extraordinarily high incidence of suicides, self-harm and death in suspicious circumstances of children in Feltham Remand Centre suggest that intimidation and brutality remain the standard methods by which children in custody are treated and controlled.

Thirty children have died in penal custody since 1990, the youngest, Adam Rickwood, was just 14 years old. Just over a third of boys and girls in custody have felt unsafe at some time. One in ten boys and girls in prison say they have been hit, kicked or assaulted by a member of staff.

Traditionally the state has never publicly admitted or condoned the deliberate use of violence against children in custody, which is why the statute authorizing the use of overt brutality in subduing "disruptive" children inmates was so disquieting and shocking. In fact, so horrific was the scenario of state-sanctioned thugs physically brutalizing children in a prison setting that the more liberal elements in the government in the form of the Parliamentary Joint committee On Human Rights announced that it would be reviewing the use of such "restraint" methods in children's' prisons, claiming that such methods had been introduced without any reference to human rights legislation. Subsequently children's minister Beverley Hughes announced that she was suspending the methods pending a report by a panel of medical experts. Her concern was obviously not based on any moral reservations about beating up children in prison, but simply a worry about possible legal consequences.

In October of 2007 the Prison Officers Association offered it's own enlightened contribution to the issue of controlling disturbed and already brutalized children in jail by calling for a change in the rules that would allow prison staff to be able to use batons on children as young as 15.

The psychological damage inflicted on children in custody is well-researched and well known; 85 per cent of prisoners in youth custody institutions show signs of personality disorder, with 10 per cent exhibiting signs of severe psychotic illness such as schizophrenia. Into this mix of mental suffering and pain the state wants to throw some good old fashioned physical brutality. This by any definition is child abuse and it is systemic and organized, and thousands of working class children are irreparably damaged by it.

The state's assault on the rights and freedoms of working class children under New Labour has been sweeping and vicious, and the number of 15 to 17 years olds in prison custody has increased by 86 per cent since Labour took office. In tandem with this mass criminalization of already socially disadvantaged children is the creation of prison regimes openly designed to brutalize them even more.

The media and tabloid press, usually very keen to whip up hysteria and a climate of hatred against child abusers when campaigning for tougher laws, have remained consistently quiet about the abuse of children in closed institutions, creating a silence and invisibility around these children that increases their vulnerability and ill-treatment. Each year over 70,000 children are dealt with through the criminal justice system and around 12,000 of them are incarcerated in penal-type institutions that are no more than training grounds for the adult long-term prison system. This represents the wholesale destruction of young working class lives in the interests of a system that is itself inherently anti-social and predatory towards the poor and powerless.

The imprisonment of children is barbaric and one of the worst forms of state cruelty, and unless we speak out and campaign against it we are all in some way complicit in it.