Section one Context as being from a black and minority ethnic background.70 This was the highest rate recorded in HMI Prisons’ surveys in YOIs. Over this year there has been a spotlight on conditions for children in detention in various different settings. In April 2018, the Joint Committee on Human Rights ( JCHR) began an inquiry on youth detention focusing on solitary confinement and restraint. Following evidence about the inappropriate detention of children and young people with learning disabilities and/or autism in mental health hospitals, it issued a further call for evidence specific to this issue. The Committee found that there was excessive use of separation and restraint in hospitals and custody and that the rights of children in detention are often not enforced.71 It stated that ‘the systems in hospitals and custody do not do enough to ensure that children are sufficiently aware of their rights and of how to appeal if their rights have been breached’. The Committee also concluded that ‘the deliberate infliction of pain in [YOIs] is unacceptable under any circumstances under rights legislation’. The NPM shares this view and welcomes the unequivocal stance from the JCHR. The report calls for the prohibition of restraint for maintaining ‘good order and discipline’ in all but the most exceptional of circumstances. The Children’s Commissioner for England raised concerns about the steadily increasing proportion of children remanded into custody, and the worrying implication this trend has for children’s rights. Children on remand accounted for 28% of the entire youth custody population and the majority (66%) were not subsequently given a prison sentence.72 The Commissioner also challenged the increase in the number of episodes of segregation in youth custody in England and Wales over the past four years, despite the overall number of children detained having fallen. Although not applying directly to places of detention, Scotland’s Children and Young People’s Commissioner has examined seclusion and restraint practices in schools and considered whether these constitute a deprivation of liberty.73 The Commissioner found varying practices in recording the use of seclusion and restraint in schools and that in some local authorities, children may be subject to restraint and seclusion without any policy or guidance in place to support lawful and rights-compliant practice. The Commissioner recommended that the Scottish Government should publish a rights-based national policy and guidance on restraint and seclusion in schools. 70 HMI Prisons and Youth Justice Board, January 2019, Children in Custody 2017–18. An analysis of 12–18-year-olds’ perceptions of their experiences in secure training centres and young offender institutions. Further data is available from Ministry of Justice, January 2020, Youth Justice Statistics 2018 to 2019, https://www.justiceinspectorates.gov.uk/ hmiprisons/wp-content/uploads/sites/4/2019/01/6.5164_HMI_Children-in-Custody-2017-18_A4_v10_web.pdf [accessed 04/02/20] https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/862078/ youth-justice-statistics-bulletin-march-2019.pdf [accessed 05/12/19] 71 Joint Committee on Human Rights, April 2019, Youth detention: solitary confinement and restraint, Nineteenth Report of Session 2017-19, https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/jt201719/jtselect/jtrights/994/994.pdf [accessed 05/12/19]. Note that the report was published in May 2019, outside the reporting period. 72 Ministry of Justice, January 2020, Youth Justice Statistics 2018 to 2019, https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/youthjustice-statistics-2018-to-2019 [accessed 04/02/20] 73 Children and Young People’s Commissioner Scotland, December 2018, Restraint and Seclusion in Scotland’s schools: Commissioner publishes first investigation report, https://www.cypcs.org.uk/news/in-the-news/restraint-and-seclusion-inscotlands-schools-commissioner-publishes-first-investigation-report [accessed 13/01/20] 29