Article 39’s submission to Lord Laming’s independent review into looked after children in the criminal justice system stresses the importance of protecting children from the known harms of the criminal justice system, including being labelled and publicly identified as a criminal, increased contact with more experienced offenders, detention in abusive penal institutions and restrictions on … Read more
A report published today by Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Prisons says Yarl’s Wood immigration removal centre in Bedfordshire “is rightly a place of national concern”. Most of those detained are single women, though children are held there sometimes. Inspectors report that, across the past year, 23 individuals have been detained at Yarl’s Wood who said … Read more
Article 39 has found that investigations into past abuse in council-run children’s homes are taking place in 24% of local authorities. We obtained the data through a freedom of information request to all English local authorities. Of 75 local authorities that answered the question, 18 were aware of investigations into past abuse in children’s homes … Read more