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| UPDATED
EVERY FRIDAY
Last Update:
Friday 20th
May, 2005 |
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| All
content © New Journal Enterprises, 2005. |
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| Prisoner had only 7p for 38-mile trip to
his home |
POLICE planned to release
a mentally ill man from a Camden cell with only seven pence
to get him home to Bedford 38 miles away, it has emerged.
Independent custody visitors – unpaid volunteers who
check on the welfare of police detainees – came across
the man in a Camden cell last summer and insisted he be provided
with a travel warrant to get him home. In another case, just
two months ago, a violent prisoner armed himself with sharp
shards from a smashed cell bed and threatened guards.
Volunteers had warned three weeks earlier that the custody
suite was severely understaffed, with a lack of support from
senior officers.
The revelations follow a New Journal report last month which
showed how volunteer custody visitors saved a drugs mule’s
life after mistakes by police officers and medics in a cell
at Holborn police station last year.
They are made in a report by Mick Farrant, chairman of Camden
Independent Custody Visitors group, which was presented to
police chiefs at a conference on Wednesday.
In his report, Mr Farrant writes: “There are no votes
and probably no promotions in improving conditions in police
detention.
“That leaves disasters like deaths in police stations
as the main motor for change – and that, surely, is
unacceptable.”
He warns that the role of the volunteer visitors is poorly
defined. Mr Farrant says it is unclear how much authority
they have to challenge the vast array of officials who work
in cells, including doctors, nurses, drug workers, immigration
staff, Crown Prosecution Service officers, social workers
and civilian jailors.
He adds: “Some 136,200 people were committed for a period
of time in prison custody in England and Wales in 2002.
“The number in police custody is 10 times this, yet
there is very little publicity or public awareness of conditions
in custody suites as compared to prisons.”
A Camden Police spokeswoman said: “We haven’t
seen this report so it wouldn’t be right to comment
at this point, although all incidents in custody are fully
investigated.
“The work of ICVs is fully appreciated as they work
to ensure that standards are maintained in our custody suites.”
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