A/HRC/16/52/Add.3
to him. He indicated that he would like to have more free time after dinner. His mother had
visited him two weeks prior.
214. F. W., aged 16. He stated that he did not get in trouble, and as a result had not been
beaten at Hill Top. However, he noted that another boy had been beaten with a broomstick
and dragged across the floor a few days before the visit. He had been at Hill Top since
April 2009 for uncontrollable behaviour. He would be released when he turned 18. He
complained that he did not receive enough food and that he was hungry every day. He also
complained that the dormitories were sometimes locked-down for no apparent reason, and
that the Superintendent beat the boys with a belt or a stick. He had been sick a few days
before, and was taken to the doctor and given medication. He concluded that the judge sent
them to Hill Top so that they could improve their behaviour and be able to go home;
instead, they were beaten by the warders.
215. D.G., aged 17, was arrested in late August 2008 and spent 14 nights at Portland
Police Station on a cold bunk. Instead of toilets, the detainees had to use buckets in the cell.
Then he spent nine days at St. Andrew Remand Centre before he was transferred to Hill
Top in September 2008. He expected to be released on 3 September 2010. In the
“Middlesex Dorm”, there were 41 boys who were split into four or five gangs. The daily
routine was fairly strict: at 6 a.m. the boys had to wake up, shower, and clean the cells; at
8.30 a.m. they received breakfast; at 9 a.m. they gathered for devotion; at 9.30 a.m. classes
started (mathematics, English, social studies, science, etc.); from 12.30 to 2.30 p.m. the
boys had lunch break; at 3 p.m. a muster check was conducted and then they could go for
recreation outside (football, cricket, volley ball, table tennis, domino etc.); at 4.45 p.m.
another muster check was conducted; at 5 p.m. they had supper; at 5.30 p.m. they had to go
back to their dormitories (quiet time, meditation, TV, etc.); and bedtime was at 10 p.m.
During the weekends, the boys had to stay in their dormitories. There were different types
of punishments: taking away things like soap or new clothes; banning visits for up to two
months (normally, they could receive visits every day); being put into the solitary
punishment cells for up to three days; and confinement to the “sick boy area” where he had
been last Monday from morning to evening. Sometimes, they were also beaten with hands
and fists. According to him, Officer Brown was the most violent warder. The
Superintendent was alright and Officers Small and Lawrence were very nice.
216. M.C., aged 16, had arrived at Hill Top in November 2008 and expected to leave the
facility in November 2010. The Superintendent was nice, but there had been a warder who
beat him with a belt on the palm of his hand. The warder had since resigned.
217. D.C., aged 16, had been at Freeport Police Station from May 2007 to September
2007. He noted that it was terrible, with six to eight people in the cell, sleeping on concrete.
At Hill Top he liked that he learned a lot, and felt more protected than being outside in his
community, where he would be dead by now. He had suffered greatly when both his
parents recently passed away successively and he was not allowed to go to their funerals.
He felt lonely and missed them a lot. He thought of them every night.
218. E., aged 16, had been at Top Hill since February 2009. Prior to that, he had spent
three days at Hanover Police Station with two others in a cell. When they started to fight,
the police used pepper spray which caused burns, but they were not beaten. Then he spent
another three days at Stony Hill (St. Andrew Remand Centre) which he considered to be
better than Hill Top. At Hill Top, the officers treated them like animals and sometimes they
beat and kicked them. On 22 December 2009, Officer Basil had also beaten him. The
Superintendent also practiced corporal punishment in his office in the form of six strokes
on the buttocks with a leather belt. He complained in particular that during weekends they
were not allowed to go out of the dormitories. His mother died in 2004, and his father lived
in Hanover but visited him only rarely. Visits took place in the Common Room, but usually
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