The five week inquest into the restraint-related death of 15-year-old Gareth Myatt, who died in the privately run Rainsbrook Secure Training Centre (STC) in April 2004, finished last Thursday.
The inquest jury found his death could have been prevented.
Gareth Myatt choked on his own vomit and died of ‘positional asphyxia’ while being held in a Seated Double Embrace restraint by two male and one female Training Centre officers.
He was just three days into a six-month sentence when the officers followed him to his room when he refused to clean a sandwich toaster in the communal area.
The inquest heard that, while he was being restrained, the teenager, who was 4ft 10in tall and weighed less than seven stone, tried to warn the officers that he could not breathe, but he was ignored.
The Northamptonshire jury returned a verdict of accidental death but said the restraint and lack of training contributed to his death and made sweeping criticisms about the conduct of the Youth Justice Board.
Following the verdict, Gareth’s mother Pam Wilton said: ‘What I have heard has deeply upset, angered and shocked me. I loved Gareth so much and my life will never be the same.
‘When he went to Rainsbrook I expected him to get the help he needed. At the end of all of this he is still dead and no-one has been held accountable.’
Deborah Coles, Co-director of INQUEST said: ‘The evidence that has been presented to inquest has revealed a catalogue of errors that have penetrated to the heart of the conduct of the Youth Justice Board (YJB), the privately run institutions in whose care vulnerable children are entrusted and the individual custody officers employed to deal with vulnerable children on a daily basis.
‘As a result of these gross errors the safety of children within Secure Training Centres can be said to have been put at risk on a daily basis.
‘Warning signals went unheeded; protests from the children were muffled.
‘We have heard nothing during this inquest that has convinced us that those with responsibility have properly heeded what has been exposed and that necessary and appropriate changes have or will now be made to safeguard children.
‘Further, while the inquest has been a full investigation into Gareth’s treatment at Rainsbrook and his death there, it has merely touched on the issues of how vulnerable children are treated in the criminal justice system.’
Coles added: ‘On paper the mission statement of the YJB remains to ensure that custody for children is safe, secure and addresses the causes of their offending behaviour.
‘The issues that the jury found directly causative of Gareth’s death have not been rectified by the YJB.
‘And it is against this background that far from learning the lessons they now support a change in the law to make it more permissible to use restraint – and in circumstances where the restraint techniques are being executed up to 3,000 times per year by poorly trained, unskilled, unqualified staff.
‘The YJB and Ministry of Justice have displayed a ruthless intent to change the law to make it more permissible to restrain children without public accountability or debate and with no consideration as to whether this is in the best interests of ensuring the safety, security and overall welfare of the children.
‘The demonstrated intent of the YJB to legalise restraining children for compliance without proper debate flies in the face of its stated intentions both before this inquest and in its mission statement and code of practice on behavioural management.’
The coroner has indicated that he will be using his power under r43 of the Coroners Rules 1984 to make a report to those authorities who have the power to take action to prevent the recurrence of similar fatalities.
The family’s legal team and INQUEST have been invited to make submissions to the coroner on this.
INQUEST will also be seeking an urgent meeting with the new Minister of Justice, Jack Straw, to discuss the issues arising from this inquest and that into the death of 14-year-old Adam Rickwood and to urge him to withdraw Statutory Instrument 2007 No 1709 proposing changes to the Secure Training Centre Rules 1998 which are due to take effect on 6 July 2007.
The amendments permit a widening of the circumstances and personnel that can remove a child from association and the circumstances in which force can be used against children in STCs.
The current physical restraint methods used were explicitly approved for use only when it was necessary to prevent the child from escaping from custody, injuring themselves or others or damaging property and not simply when they refuse to comply with an order, as the amendments will permit.
It has been stated that the reason for the amendment has been necessary to ‘clarify’ the law and bring the rules into line with other institutions that detain children.
However, the government recently accepted at the inquest into the death of Adam Rickwood, that it was currently unlawful to restrain children in STCs for reasons of good order or discipline (i.e. for non compliance).
In addition to this, other institutions such as Local Authority Secure Children’s Homes (LASCHs) similarly do not have the power or a practice to restrain children or remove them from association for reasons of good order or discipline and the amendments would not, therefore, have the effect of unifying these practices across similar establishments.
There has been a completely flawed consultation process which appears to have been conducted in private exclusively with the private contractors who run the STCs.
The YJB and Ministry of Justice have failed to consult the Children’s Commissioner or any other agency with particular expertise in child care and child protection.
Many of these agencies have subsequently written to the Secretary of State to express their concerns about the possible changes.
In addition to this, the government also failed to consult their own panel of experts who approved the restraint methods currently used in STCs where it was known that they would have serious concerns about what was proposed.
