Deaths in police custody reform, progress update 2021

Police at 10 Downing Street
Image credit http://www.youtube.com

source: GOV.UK
published: 20 July 2021

We are sharing the item below which links to the previous publications on this topic, listed at the end of this article.

The UK Government is committed to delivering meaningful and lasting change to prevent deaths in custody and support families. That is why on 23 July 2015, then Home Secretary Rt Hon Theresa May MP announced a major review of deaths and serious incidents in police custody, focusing on the experience of bereaved families.

This followed the former Home Secretary’s meetings with bereaved families who made clear that the system was not fit for purpose; not only in preventing deaths in police custody,

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Self harm cases in women’s prisons reaches record high

Domiciliary Prisonsource: PrisonPhone
published: 23 April 2021

With the effects of COVID-19 it has caused many prisoners to be separated from their families and loved ones even more so than before.

Having more than a year apart from seeing their families on a face to face basis has caused a serious impact on some inmates, seeing a record high in self harming cases across some of the women’s prisons.

Self harm amongst female prisoners has increased rapidly.  A spokesman said “Many women haven’t seen their families in person for over a year, and are confined to their cells for up to 23 hours a day”. The crisis of the Coronavirus has created a number of incidents reaching a record high, new data shows.

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Custody campaign groups back new research on impact on families

Police Line
image by Stephen Gent

source: Dr Nadine El-Enany
published: 31 July 2019

4WardEver UK and the United Families & Friends Campaign (UFFC) are calling on affected families to support new research to be conducted by Dr Nadine El-Enany of Birkbeck School of Law, examining what drives family campaigns and what family members understand justice to mean amongst others.

Here’s what Dr Nadine El-Enany has to say;

“My name is Nadine El-Enany. I work at Brikbeck Law School where I co-direct the Centre for Research on Race and Law. I would like to invite you to participate in a research project via an interview. I am working on a project funded by the Leverhulme Trust on the role of families in cases where a racialised person has died in custody, including police, prison or a health/mental health institution.

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