5 October 201420 December 2022 4WardEverUK

Rikers Island, an end to solitary confinement of children

source: Solitary Watch
published: 1 October 2014

The New York City Department of Correction (DOC) has plans to minimize the solitary confinement of 16 and 17 year olds on Rikers Island. This according to an internal memo obtained by the New York Times, as reported in an article published earlier this week.

The revelation comes on the heels of a three-year investigation by the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), the findings of which were released in an August report by the U.S. Attorney’s office in Manhattan.

29 July 201420 December 2022 4WardEverUK

Four suicides at ‘crisis’ prison HMP Ranby

source: BBC News
published: 24 July 2014

A jail in Nottinghamshire where four inmates killed themselves in less than a year has been described as a “prison in crisis” in a damning report.

HMP Ranby was found to be “unsafe” with high levels of violence, the HM Inspectorate of Prisons report said. The situation at the jail near Worksop has “deteriorated significantly” since the last inspection in 2012, it said.

4 June 201420 December 2022 4WardEverUK

‘Stateless’ asylum seeker found dead in his cell

source: The Independent
published: 4 June 2014

A young asylum seeker has been found dead at a Victorian jail which is still being run as a prison despite only housing people seeking refuge in Britain, The Independent has learnt.

Bruno Dos Santos, who was in his 20s and has a child in the UK, was discovered in his cell at around 7.30am this morning at HMP The Verne, which is on the Isle of Portland in Dorset and dates back to the 1840s.

The prison has been used solely by the Home Office to house asylum seekers since March, but plans to convert it into an immigration removal centre have been put on hold until the autumn – meaning that it is run as a jail and detainees are kept under harsher conditions than normal. Their access to legal advice to advance their cases is also reduced.