UK Parliament / Open data

Criminal Justice and Courts Bill

Proceeding contribution from Lord Ramsbotham (Crossbench) in the House of Lords on Wednesday, 21 January 2015. It occurred during Debate on bills on Criminal Justice and Courts Bill.

My Lords, I am content to agree with Commons Amendment 74C and am most grateful to the Minister not only for the way in which he has presented the Government’s change of heart but for his courtesy in giving me and a number of other noble Lords advance warning, by letter and also in discussion, of what it would contain. I say again how much I, and I am sure many other noble Lords, have appreciated the courtesy and admired the skilled advocacy that he has deployed throughout the passage of this Bill. I do not include the Minister in any criticisms that I make of the secure college proposal, on which he and I may not agree, but which I will continue to oppose as strongly as I am able for as long as it takes. As I have said before, I regard the very idea of building the biggest children’s prison in the western world as a stain on our treasured national reputation for fairness, decency and humanity under the rule of law.

I appreciate that the Minister is under the strict riding instructions from a Lord Chancellor whose jurisprudential credibility has been forensically unpicked by my noble friend Lord Pannick and Secretary of State for Justice who has wreaked havoc on the ability of the prison and probation services to protect the public. With that track record, noble Lords will appreciate why I pray that that same person never gets his way with his pet plan for the detention of vulnerable and damaged children.

At each stage of the Bill, I have drawn attention to some new development or piece of evidence that adds to the strength of the case against the secure college proposal, and today is no exception. First, last week came the welcome announcement that, thanks mainly to the determined efforts of the Youth Justice Board, there are now fewer than 1,000 children in detention. Does it really make sense to hold one-third of them in one place and plan a repeat with yet more ?

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Secondly, there have been two significant meetings of the five all-party groups, including the penal affairs group, which I co-chair, which are examining the

mental health and emotional well-being needs of children and young people under the skilled leadership of the chairman of the children’s group, the noble Baroness, Lady Massey of Darwen, with a view to producing a report. In the first meeting, in addition to a number of primary and secondary school children with mental health and emotional well-being problems, we heard from Professor Colleen McLaughlin of Sussex University of her detailed research into the best ways of supporting children with such problems in schools. Everything she said and subsequently sent me to read is diametrically opposite to the Secretary of State’s contention about his secure college. She makes it abundantly clear that children with such problems can make no educational progress until their health and well-being problems are assessed and tackled, the selection and employment of suitable staff being absolutely crucial to success.

Thirdly, we heard from the Department of Health’s children and young people’s mental health and well-being task force, the formation of which I welcomed at Third Reading. It will soon publish a report on what it has learnt so far about vulnerable groups, among which it includes those in the youth justice system. It confirms that, although it has met with Ministry of Justice officials to discuss general principles and knew about the secure college proposal, it has never been consulted about it. Already it has identified lack of co-ordination between government departments as a key problem area. In one of seven pilots, the Black Country community commissioning groups and child and adolescent mental health services are scoping, mapping and analysing the prevention of large numbers of Black Country children being placed out of area, which presumably includes the secure college, the Black Country being in its catchment area.

Noble Lords may remember that, both on Report and at Third Reading, I asked the Minister to have the secure college proposal referred to the Prime Minister because it appeared to be contrary to the Government’s announced social justice strategy. I also wrote to the Prime Minister after Third Reading asking him to reconsider the secure college proposal in the light of the evidence, eventually receiving a reply that had clearly been drafted in the Ministry of Justice because it contained exactly the same phrases as those used in letters by the Minister. After our vote on 9 December I wrote to him again, once more asking him to look at the confliction between experts and the Secretary of State, quoting in particular the lessons from Clayfields House secure children’s home with its 18% reconviction rate. The Prime Minister replied on 13 January, hoping that I was reassured that the relevant evidence that he listed had been considered. Let me briefly explain why I am not.

First, he said that the Ministry of Justice’s careful analysis reveals no conclusive evidence that the effectiveness of custodial institutions is linked to their size. This saddens me, because it confirms that not a blind bit of notice has been taken of my making the link in many inspections and other reports when I was Chief Inspector of Prisons, nor those of my successors who have done the same, including in some particularly damning reports last year. More worryingly, it shows that neither has any notice been taken of the link

being made by numerous experts and practitioners in this country and elsewhere.

Secondly, the Prime Minister said that the needs and characteristics of young people in custody have been closely considered in developing proposals for secure colleges and particularly in designing and planning the pathfinder. Quite apart from noting what experts have said about the lack of consideration of mental health and emotional well-being, far from using a purpose built site, everyone knows that the Secretary of State’s pathfinder has merely been designed and planned to fit into a site for which he already had planning permission for a totally different type of institution. I wonder why we have not heard of this alleged consideration during the passage of the Bill.

I sincerely hope that whenever the educational contracts are let, anyone bidding will be required to confirm that they have taken into account all the available evidence and catered for appropriate staffing to meet the mental health and emotional well-being needs as well as the custodial needs of the cohort of damaged and vulnerable children whom the Secretary of State proposes to send to his secure college. Because he refuses to release the criteria against which these bids will be judged, assuming that there any, or to give any idea of the regime that bidders are expected to provide should their bid win, we shall never know in what way the Secretary of State has taken into account any of the considerations quoted. When has anyone, let alone a Secretary of State, launched a bidding process for a government contract about which so little is known and where that which is known runs so counter to all available advice? Because bids are unlikely to be judged before the election, I hope that that marks the end of the affair.

Commons Amendment 74C effectively rescues boys under 15 and girls. Noble Lords will not be surprised that, while I agree with that, I regret that the Motion is not about the shameful secure college proposal. I hope that proposal will never come to fruition. It is inappropriate, unproven, undeliverable and plain wrong.

Type
Proceeding contribution
Reference
758 cc1334-6 
Session
2014-15
Chamber / Committee
House of Lords chamber
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