The UK government has agreed to pay £31,500 compensation after accepting that a 15-year-old boy with serious mental health problems was subjected to “inhuman or degrading treatment” by being kept in solitary confinement for almost two months.
The boy, identified in court documents as AB, was locked alone in his cell for more than 23 hours a day for at least the first 55 days of his detention in Feltham prison, according to the Howard League for Penal Reform, which represented him.
The payment marks the end of a seven-year legal battle in which the government fought AB’s claim that his treatment breached article 3 of the European convention on human rights, which states: “No one shall be subjected to torture or to inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.”
From December 2016 to February 2017, the boy received no education and had no contact with any other child. He was allowed out of his cell for approximately half an hour each day, only to shower, use the phone or exercise, the Howard League said.
Last week, the European court of human rights decided to strike out AB’s application after the government finally acknowledged the article 3 breach before the case could be heard before judges in Strasbourg.
The government has agreed to pay AB £31,500 in respect of any and all non-pecuniary damage. This is understood to be one of the largest sums ever paid by the UK in a so-called “friendly settlement” before the European court of human rights.
Andrea Coomber KC, the chief executive of the Howard League, said: “Settling at such a late stage, and on terms limited to the particular circumstances of one case, is particularly cynical when we know that there are other children in prison being forced to endure horrendous conditions of solitary confinement today. Indeed, prisons holding children are in a worse state now than they were when this legal battle began.
“Prison is no place for a child. Now that this case is over, and as AB begins the next chapter in his life, we urge ministers to come forward with a plan to ensure that no more children suffer in this way.”
AB said: “It shouldn’t have taken them that long, and for them to have changed their mind at the last minute, it is not fair.
“Separation is horrible. For rehabilitation and communication, people skills are a big thing. By them not letting me see children, taking that away, it is hindering your potential to stay out when you get out.”
A Ministry of Justice spokesperson said: “Separation can be necessary in some cases to prevent someone seriously hurting themselves or others but we accept there was a breach in this particular case.
“We are overhauling education services and providing tailored mental health support to give every child in our care the tools to turn their backs on crime for good.”
