Policy & Reform

4WardEverUK

Licence to sell taser guns to British police under scrutiny

originally by: Sky News
14th February 2011

The Home Secretary is being asked why her department was apparently unaware of links between the new supplier – TSR Ltd – and the firm stripped of its licence to sell Tasers last year. Sky News has discovered that the men in charge of the two firms jointly own a third company, G3i Ltd, which has played a key role in selling millions of pounds worth of Tasers since 2002.

A spokesman for the Home Office admitted it was not aware of G3i or of its joint ownership until Sky News alerted them to it last week – but he refused to elaborate.

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4WardEverUK

‘Secret’ manual reveals brutal methods used on youths

originally published by: Mail on Sunday
18th July 2010

A government manual instructing prison staff on how to inflict pain on teenage inmates was today labelled ‘state authorised child abuse’.

The Ministry of Justice was forced to release details of its approved ‘restraint and self-defence techniques’ for children in secure training centres after a lengthy freedom of information battle. The secret manual, Physical Control In Care, authorises staff to ‘use an inverted knuckle into the trainee’s sternum and drive inward and upward.’ Officers at youth prisons, such as HMP Young Offenders’ Institution in Feltham, were given guidelines on how to restrain children as young as 12.

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4WardEverUK

Child custody restraint manual is to be released in full

Office Binderoriginally published by: Children’s Rights Alliance
date unknown

After three years of secrecy and resistance, the Youth Justice Board (YJB) has agreed to hand over the instructors’ manual which governs the use of physical restraint in the country’s four privately-run child prisons.

This victory for child protection comes days before the YJB and Ministry of Justice were set to argue at an Information Tribunal appeal hearing that handing over the document would pose a serious risk to prison security and public safety.

The YJB was appealing against an order by the Information Commissioner in December 2009 that the document be given to the Children’s Rights Alliance for England (CRAE).

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