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| Detained children need secure facilities, not police stations | |
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| Although still only 17, Kesia Leatherbarrow had a long history of self-harming and mental health problems when she was arrested by police in December 2013 for having a small amount of cannabis. | Although still only 17, Kesia Leatherbarrow had a long history of self-harming and mental health problems when she was arrested by police in December 2013 for having a small amount of cannabis. |
| She was kept in the cells all weekend, where she became distraught, banging her head and pulling out her hair, before being sent to court on Monday morning. The court bailed her to come back the next day but a few hours later she was found dead in a friend’s garden. | She was kept in the cells all weekend, where she became distraught, banging her head and pulling out her hair, before being sent to court on Monday morning. The court bailed her to come back the next day but a few hours later she was found dead in a friend’s garden. |
| Dr Sarah Wollaston MP highlighted earlier this week the “scandal” of vulnerable children and young people being given mental health assessments in police cells for want of anywhere more suitable to take them. “It would be unthinkable for someone who had a broken leg, for whom there was no place to assess them in casualty, to be taken to a police cell. It should be unthinkable for someone who is having an acute mental health crisis to be seen in a police cell,” said Wollaston, a former GP and chair of the Commons health select committee. | Dr Sarah Wollaston MP highlighted earlier this week the “scandal” of vulnerable children and young people being given mental health assessments in police cells for want of anywhere more suitable to take them. “It would be unthinkable for someone who had a broken leg, for whom there was no place to assess them in casualty, to be taken to a police cell. It should be unthinkable for someone who is having an acute mental health crisis to be seen in a police cell,” said Wollaston, a former GP and chair of the Commons health select committee. |
| Under section 136 of the Mental Health Act, anyone who appears to be mentally disturbed in a public place can be detained to a “place of safety” to be properly assessed. The lack of specialist facilities nationwide means that, too often, rather than being taken to a mental health hospital, children and young people suffering mental breakdown are being assessed in police cells. There are only 161 places of safety in England and a third of these don’t take under-16s. | Under section 136 of the Mental Health Act, anyone who appears to be mentally disturbed in a public place can be detained to a “place of safety” to be properly assessed. The lack of specialist facilities nationwide means that, too often, rather than being taken to a mental health hospital, children and young people suffering mental breakdown are being assessed in police cells. There are only 161 places of safety in England and a third of these don’t take under-16s. |
| Figures from the Care Quality Commission show that 7,761 people, both children and adults, had their section 136 assessment conducted in a police cell last year – around a third of the total assessments that were done. According to the Association of Chief Police Officers, nearly half of all under-18s had their section 136 assessments carried out in a cell. | Figures from the Care Quality Commission show that 7,761 people, both children and adults, had their section 136 assessment conducted in a police cell last year – around a third of the total assessments that were done. According to the Association of Chief Police Officers, nearly half of all under-18s had their section 136 assessments carried out in a cell. |
| In Kesia’s case, she was in police custody following arrest rather than being detained under the Mental Health Act, but her story shows just how desperately ill-equipped the police are to deal with children who are mentally fragile. Her mother, Martha Brincat Baines, tells how Kesia changed from being “fun-loving and adventurous” soon after starting secondary school, becoming increasingly depressed and suicidal. At one point she spent five weeks in a hospital mental health ward. There were still flashes of the old Kesia, however. “She could still really make us laugh,” her mother says. | In Kesia’s case, she was in police custody following arrest rather than being detained under the Mental Health Act, but her story shows just how desperately ill-equipped the police are to deal with children who are mentally fragile. Her mother, Martha Brincat Baines, tells how Kesia changed from being “fun-loving and adventurous” soon after starting secondary school, becoming increasingly depressed and suicidal. At one point she spent five weeks in a hospital mental health ward. There were still flashes of the old Kesia, however. “She could still really make us laugh,” her mother says. |
| The weekend before her death was not Kesia’s first run-in with the police. A few weeks earlier they were called after she had threatened suicide on the street. By the time the police arrived her family had got her back home but she was arrested for breach of the peace anyway, according to her mother. The incident is now the subject of a complaint to the Independent Police Complaints Commission, but Brincat Baines says: “They came and took her from her bedroom – dragging her down the stairs, kicking and screaming. This was despite me begging them not to.” | The weekend before her death was not Kesia’s first run-in with the police. A few weeks earlier they were called after she had threatened suicide on the street. By the time the police arrived her family had got her back home but she was arrested for breach of the peace anyway, according to her mother. The incident is now the subject of a complaint to the Independent Police Complaints Commission, but Brincat Baines says: “They came and took her from her bedroom – dragging her down the stairs, kicking and screaming. This was despite me begging them not to.” |
| Kesia was kept in the cells overnight and although her mental state was assessed, the doctor concluded she was safe to be released. Her mother remains distraught at the memory and says the police intervention only made a bad situation worse. “It was absolutely terrible. Having insisted on arresting her, they then had the opportunity to identify there was something seriously wrong but they just didn’t. They didn’t do a thing. They just released her the next day.” | Kesia was kept in the cells overnight and although her mental state was assessed, the doctor concluded she was safe to be released. Her mother remains distraught at the memory and says the police intervention only made a bad situation worse. “It was absolutely terrible. Having insisted on arresting her, they then had the opportunity to identify there was something seriously wrong but they just didn’t. They didn’t do a thing. They just released her the next day.” |
| Wollaston rightly highlights the problem of holding mentally unwell children in police cells but experience suggests it is not just young people with a history of mental health problems who are vulnerable. Kesia was the third 17-year-old from the Manchester area in three years to die soon after being arrested on minor charges. Neither of the previous two, Eddie Thornber who died in 2011, or Joe Lawton who died in 2012, had any history of mental vulnerability. Both boys had been popular and high achieving. Like Kesia, Joe was kept overnight in the cells before being released, Eddie was held for a shorter period – but both boys’ parents believe their sons killed themselves because they were traumatised by their arrests and thought their futures were ruined. | Wollaston rightly highlights the problem of holding mentally unwell children in police cells but experience suggests it is not just young people with a history of mental health problems who are vulnerable. Kesia was the third 17-year-old from the Manchester area in three years to die soon after being arrested on minor charges. Neither of the previous two, Eddie Thornber who died in 2011, or Joe Lawton who died in 2012, had any history of mental vulnerability. Both boys had been popular and high achieving. Like Kesia, Joe was kept overnight in the cells before being released, Eddie was held for a shorter period – but both boys’ parents believe their sons killed themselves because they were traumatised by their arrests and thought their futures were ruined. |
| All three sets of bereaved parents, who have become friends, recently wrote to the home secretary urging her to change the law so that arrested 17-year-olds have the full range of welfare protections given to younger children, including the right to be transferred to local authority accommodation if they are detained overnight. They all believe that if their children had been recognised as such and given proper support after being arrested, they might not have died. | All three sets of bereaved parents, who have become friends, recently wrote to the home secretary urging her to change the law so that arrested 17-year-olds have the full range of welfare protections given to younger children, including the right to be transferred to local authority accommodation if they are detained overnight. They all believe that if their children had been recognised as such and given proper support after being arrested, they might not have died. |
| There is more that should also be done. Half of all police forces, including the Metropolitan police, don’t have any separate, designated custody facilities for holding children; budget cuts are forcing local authorities to close the secure beds used to accommodate children detained overnight, meaning that more of them are spending the night in police cells – some as young as 10; and more child-friendly places of safety are needed as a matter or urgency. | There is more that should also be done. Half of all police forces, including the Metropolitan police, don’t have any separate, designated custody facilities for holding children; budget cuts are forcing local authorities to close the secure beds used to accommodate children detained overnight, meaning that more of them are spending the night in police cells – some as young as 10; and more child-friendly places of safety are needed as a matter or urgency. |
| What is needed is greater investment in this area and a fundamental shift in thinking that recognises that whether they have been arrested or detained because of mental health concerns, in the words of Brincat Baines: “The police station is no place for any child.” | What is needed is greater investment in this area and a fundamental shift in thinking that recognises that whether they have been arrested or detained because of mental health concerns, in the words of Brincat Baines: “The police station is no place for any child.” |