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The Systematic Abuse of Children by the State

John Bowden | 04.03.2008 13:25 | Repression | World

John Bowden writes from Noranside Prison, Scotland.

Britain has a long and pernicious history of abusing and brutalizing working class children confined to state institutions, so it was hardly surprising recently when a statutory instrument amending the rules governing the treatment of children in "secure training centres" legitimized the use of so-called "physical control in care restraint techniques", one of which authorized staff to inflict blows to the face of children, euphemistically called the "nose distraction technique".

Of course the use of overt physical violence to control socially marginalized and powerless children in penal-type institutions is nothing new and for decades Borstals and Detention Centres operated regimes that were intrinsically brutal and designed to teach a "tough lesson" based on fear and intimidation. The death of a child in the notorious Reading Detention Centre in the late sixties partially exposed the regime of terror that operated in such places, although the state was always careful to maintain the illusion that it neither sanctioned or created the violence routinely inflicted on children in such custodial settings. More recently the extraordinarily high incidence of suicides, self-harm and death in suspicious circumstances of children in Feltham Remand Centre suggest that intimidation and brutality remain the standard methods by which children in custody are treated and controlled.

Thirty children have died in penal custody since 1990, the youngest, Adam Rickwood, was just 14 years old. Just over a third of boys and girls in custody have felt unsafe at some time. One in ten boys and girls in prison say they have been hit, kicked or assaulted by a member of staff.

Traditionally the state has never publicly admitted or condoned the deliberate use of violence against children in custody, which is why the statute authorizing the use of overt brutality in subduing "disruptive" children inmates was so disquieting and shocking. In fact, so horrific was the scenario of state-sanctioned thugs physically brutalizing children in a prison setting that the more liberal elements in the government in the form of the Parliamentary Joint committee On Human Rights announced that it would be reviewing the use of such "restraint" methods in children's' prisons, claiming that such methods had been introduced without any reference to human rights legislation. Subsequently children's minister Beverley Hughes announced that she was suspending the methods pending a report by a panel of medical experts. Her concern was obviously not based on any moral reservations about beating up children in prison, but simply a worry about possible legal consequences.

In October of 2007 the Prison Officers Association offered it's own enlightened contribution to the issue of controlling disturbed and already brutalized children in jail by calling for a change in the rules that would allow prison staff to be able to use batons on children as young as 15.

The psychological damage inflicted on children in custody is well-researched and well known; 85 per cent of prisoners in youth custody institutions show signs of personality disorder, with 10 per cent exhibiting signs of severe psychotic illness such as schizophrenia. Into this mix of mental suffering and pain the state wants to throw some good old fashioned physical brutality. This by any definition is child abuse and it is systemic and organized, and thousands of working class children are irreparably damaged by it.

The state's assault on the rights and freedoms of working class children under New Labour has been sweeping and vicious, and the number of 15 to 17 years olds in prison custody has increased by 86 per cent since Labour took office. In tandem with this mass criminalization of already socially disadvantaged children is the creation of prison regimes openly designed to brutalize them even more.

The media and tabloid press, usually very keen to whip up hysteria and a climate of hatred against child abusers when campaigning for tougher laws, have remained consistently quiet about the abuse of children in closed institutions, creating a silence and invisibility around these children that increases their vulnerability and ill-treatment. Each year over 70,000 children are dealt with through the criminal justice system and around 12,000 of them are incarcerated in penal-type institutions that are no more than training grounds for the adult long-term prison system. This represents the wholesale destruction of young working class lives in the interests of a system that is itself inherently anti-social and predatory towards the poor and powerless.

The imprisonment of children is barbaric and one of the worst forms of state cruelty, and unless we speak out and campaign against it we are all in some way complicit in it.

John Bowden
- Homepage: http://www.myspace.com/friendsofjohnbowden

Comments

Hide the following 7 comments

Good points, but...

04.03.2008 18:48

Good piece John.

Only one small point – like so many on Indymedia, you seem to claim that the subject you are writing about has been ignored or hushed up by the national press. Indeed, you write that the media “have remained consistently quiet about the abuse of children in closed institutions, creating a silence and invisibility around these children that increases their vulnerability and ill-treatment”.

Except… there have been more than 200 articles about Adam Rickwood alone in UK national newspapers.

Two good ones, spring to mind, one in-depth one from The Guardian (which explains how the disturbing nose distraction technique is used):
 http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2007/jun/02/youthjustice.politics

and a simpler one from The Independent:
 http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/no-risk-of-selfharm-the-official-verdict-on-the-youngest-child-to-die-in-penal-custody-447089.html


Norville B


Institutional Abuse

05.03.2008 00:26

It might be worth broadening this thread to consider what is happening to children who are brought into state care, in particular in light of recent developments at Haut de la Garenne - it is my understanding, first hand anecdotal as it may be, that the kinds of abuses which are being investigated on Jersey are endemic throughout the care system across the UK, that children have and are being mutilated (by mutilated I mean physical and sexual abuse) both by and with the sanction of people who hold positions of power.

Pancho Brigantes


the thing itself is the abuse

05.03.2008 02:17

This is endemic not just to "secure training centres", young offenders' institutions, or children's homes, but to *all* "total institutions" - go to  http://ballastexistenz.autistics.org and the category "Institutions" for the same thing in psychiatric hospitals, nursing homes, "group homes" and other institutions "for" disabled adults, or search for the UK Disabled People's Direct Action Network (DAN)'s campaigns against such institution-running charities as Scope and Leonard Cheshire (the former used to be at www.spastics-society.org.uk, but i think that site is now gone... some stuff may be found at  http://johnnypops.demon.co.uk).

It is futile to talk about "abuse" within such institutions: as Edmund Burke said (yes, apparently, at one stage of his life Burke was an anarchist!), "The Thing Itself Is The Abuse":  http://biodiverseresistance.blogspot.com/2008/01/thing-itself-is-abuse.html

shiva
- Homepage: http://biodiverseresistance.blogspot.com


Ruling class cover up.

05.03.2008 12:16

This is a subject which does get some coverage in the press but there is one aspect which is NEVER mentioned in all this. Very many of the abusers are from one group and this is the Freemasons.

You will find references to this on various web sites. Names are mentioned too and of some very prominent people, politicians, both Tory and neo Labour (some Liberals get in it must be said).

The Freemasons operate an organised system of child abuse in this country. In other countries too, don't forget Belgium and Marc Dutroux. Rumour has it the abusers have a pan European network.

When ever anything comes to light, it is "investigated" by Police who are full of Masons. Any inquiry normally has a Freemason at its head. Look at the North Wales care home abuse cases and Whitehouse who was appointed to do the investigation and hush it all up. The names of prominent people were kept out of the papers and media, except the internet.

Put "child abuse masons" in Google and see what you get.

Those in power are resposible for the abuse, or tolerate those who are, then succeed in covering it up. For how much longer?

Rosa


Morass

07.03.2008 11:18

I think, as issues go, this must be up there amongst the most sensitive and, frankly, most frightening. Am in agreement with Shiva re; abuse through care home, nursing home, the list goes on, wherever there are vulnerable people... It seems strange that those entrusted to care for most vulnerable are so poorly paid and trained (NVQ nonsense, or straight forward social work degree), which undermines any public committment to tackle these issues.

If we want to go darker, then can only advise looking up the Waterhouse report, which leaves far more questions than answers. It seems that, wherever these cases arise, far fewer are brought to trial than are implicated because of the apparent "unreliability" of witnesses who, one suspects, are so messed up that it becomes easy to discredit them. Watch Jersey.

Bringing back to children, then the failure of Every Child Matters to even vaguely empower young people, plus their villification by press and politicians, and then the failure of the youth parliament on top of that.

As a corrollary, does the state apparatus perpetuate an underclass - usually comprising our most vulnerable people, who are thereby far more susceptible to abuse, whether through straight forward wage slavery and exploitation to rather darker manifestations, well, Addaction brought out some stats last week, hard drug use cost the economy 110 billion pounds over 10 years, yet only 3 billion spent on rehab etc, and you get this huge discrepancy where solving the issue would cost far less than maintaining it. So why don't they?

Jumbled, I know.

Pancho Brigantes


Celebwatch

12.03.2008 22:24

So, it's been alleged that Sir Jimmy visited Haut de la Garenne...

Pancho Brigantes


Save the planet?

12.04.2008 00:35

No one gives a shit about children when they can be fighting for animals or immigrants or climate or other abstract entities. Dewsbury is a distraction from Jersey. They are fucking and killing your children and nobody cares. Judges, coppers, ministers, you name it, you wonder why your society is as is, but you don't want to get dirty. It's happening before your eyes and you'll ignore it because you are more them than you are you. Well, damnation cuts both ways, too.

Pancho Brigantes


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