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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Politics
Simon Hattenstone

Pain-inducing restraint to be banned in England and Wales children’s prisons

The policy will be implemented 20 years after Adam Rickwood, 14, died in custody.
The policy will be implemented 20 years after Adam Rickwood, 14, died in custody. He killed himself following a restraint by four Serco officers. Photograph: Christopher Thomond

Staff working in children’s prisons are to be banned from using techniques that deliberately cause pain, except in emergency scenarios to save life or to prevent life-changing injury.

The new Ministry of Justice policy for England and Wales, which follows a review completed by the now chief inspector of prisons, Charlie Taylor, in 2020, will be effective from February 2024. It states that it is “never acceptable to deliberately cause pain when a non-painful alternative can safely achieve the same objective”.

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