The Government has agreed to pay £31,500 in compensation after a 15-year-old boy with serious mental health problems was kept in solitary confinement in a London prison for weeks on end.
The boy, known only as AB, was subject to “inhuman or degrading treatment” and was locked alone in his cell for more than 23 hours a day for at least the first 55 days of his detention in Feltham prison, according to the Howard League for Penal Reform, who represented him.
From December 2016 and February 2017 AB received no education and had no contact with other children.
He was allowed out of his cell for around half an hour a day, only to shower, use the phone or exercise.
The payment brings an end to a seven-year legal battle in which the Government disputed that it had breached Article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights, which states: “No one shall be subjected to torture or to inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.”
Last week the European Court of Human Rights decided to strike out AB’s application after a so-called friendly settlement was reached.
The Government agreed to pay AB the five-figure sum in respect of any and all non-pecuniary damage and the payment is thought to be one of the largest sums ever paid by the UK in a friendly settlement before the European Court of Human Rights.
Andrea Coomber, Chief Executive of the Howard League for Penal Reform said: “In the seven years since (AB was locked in a cell), we have seen four prime ministers, seven justice secretaries and 10 prisons ministers, but the government has refused repeatedly to acknowledge that this shameful solitary confinement of a boy with complex needs amounted to inhuman or degrading treatment – until now.
“Settling at such a late stage, and on terms limited to the particular circumstances of one case, is particularly cynical when we know that there are other children in prison being forced to endure horrendous conditions of solitary confinement today.
“Indeed, prisons holding children are in a worse state now than they were when this legal battle began.
“Prison is no place for a child. Now that this case is over, and as AB begins the next chapter in his life, we urge ministers to come forward with a plan to ensure that no more children suffer in this way.”
In 2020, HM Inspectorate of Prisons published a report on the separation of children in prisons, drawing on findings from 85 interviews with separated children and staff responsible for their care. In the worst cases, children left their cells for only 15 minutes a day.
AB said: “It shouldn’t have taken them that long, and for them to have changed their mind at the last minute, it is not fair.
“Separation is horrible. For rehabilitation and communication, people skills are a big thing. By them not letting me see children, taking that away, it is hindering your potential to stay out when you get out.”
A Ministry of Justice spokesperson said: “Separation can be necessary in some cases to prevent someone seriously hurting themselves or others but we accept there was a breach in this particular case.
"We are overhauling education services and providing tailored mental health support to give every child in our care the tools to turn their backs on crime for good.”
