British detention facilities under European scrutiny
01 January 1991
British detention facilities under European scrutiny
artdoc April=1992
An international team of human rights experts were due to carry
out two weeks' inspections of British prisons, police stations
and top-security hospitals, following the British government's
ratification of a Council of Europe directive earlier this year.
The convention requires that no one in custody should be tortured
or held in inhuman or degrading conditions.
Home Office officials were said to be bracing themselves for
a highly critical report from the inspection team, who had chosen
Britain as one of the first countries to be visited. It was
thought that a prime target for the team would be overcrowded
local prisons. A recent report found that ten of these prisons
were 50% overcrowded, while the Prison Inspectorate has said that
Birmingham and Wandsworth prisons fall short of the Home Office
rule that inmates should be treated with `humanity'.
The inspection team's reports are not published unless the
host country is obstructive in implementing their
recommendations, but one outcome might be to increase pressure
on the government to introduce legally-backed minimum standards
for prisoners. (Times 28.7.90)
Institute of Race Relations, Police-Media Bulletin, no 63