the police authority 3.3 Conclusions As previously mentioned, police custody facilities are not designed for anything other than short-term deprivations of liberty that last for a maximum of a couple of days. During this year’s inspections, it has emerged that individuals deprived of their liberty have spent significantly longer periods than this in police custody facilities. The situation has been caused by the strained occupancy situation in the Prison and Probation Service’s remand prisons. The Prison and Probation Service has, therefore, occasionally been forced to close certain remand prisons for new admissions of individuals deprived of their liberty. The situation that has arisen is beyond the control of the Police Authority. However, the Police Authority does have a great responsibility for taking measures to reduce the negative consequences for remand prisoners who remain in a police custody facility.56 Such measures can, for example, mean bringing in extra staff to be able to offer remand prisoners both isolation-breaking measures and more time outside their cells, for example in an exercise yard. Furthermore, there may be a need to review how cells are equipped and increase remand prisoners’ opportunities for different types of stimulation. During the year, it has emerged that, inter alia, young individuals taken into care for treatment in accordance with the Care of Young Persons Act have remained for several days in the Police Authority’s custody facilities pending transportation to a special residential home for young people. The reason why these situations have arisen is that the Prison and Probation Service has not had sufficient capacity to carry out requests for assisted transportations. The agency has down-prioritised transportations requested by the Police Authority. As previously mentioned, the Parliamentary Ombudsman has stated that a police custody facility is usually an unsuitable place for placing young persons taken into care for treatment. If a young individual is to be placed in custody at all, a transportation must be initiated as soon as possible, and no later than the day after they have been taken into custody. There are positive examples within the Police Authority where staff members work actively to avoid, as far as is possible, young individuals being placed in a police custody facility. In these cases, the Police Authority orders a transportation from the Prison and Probation Service and the young individual is collected only once the transportation can be performed. As such, young individuals taken into care need not be placed in a police custody facility. Such an approach is probably not possible in all situations, but there should be room for the Police Authority to review its routines in these cases in order to reduce the time that young individuals have to be held in a police custody facility. In 2019, the Police Authority took a comprehensive approach in looking at the issue of the interior design and set up of its cells. There will be a review of all cells to reduce the risk of detainees harming themselves on the interior. 56 See Chapter 1, Section 5 of the Remand Prisons Act, which, for example, states that the execution of a decision to deprive someone of their liberty must be conducted in such a manner that negative consequences are counteracted. 31