Vocaroo 06 Jun 2024 07_55_18 GMT+0100 18cWWzaeU6Nt

The episode discusses police custody and its controversies. Police custody refers to when a person is detained by the police, usually in a police station. It serves various purposes but can be harmful if not done correctly. Risk assessments are conducted to determine if the detainee is at risk of harming themselves or others, but there are still instances of self-harm and even death in custody. Human rights concerns arise as officers are legally required to provide a reason for arrest, but this is not always fulfilled. There are also health concerns and issues with identifying disabilities or conditions of detainees. Ultimately, police custody is seen as more damaging than beneficial, particularly in terms of health. Data on the number of people in custody and related statistics are not readily available. The conclusion suggests the need for alternative approaches, such as implementing a standardized risk assessment, to address the shortcomings of police custody. Hello you guys and welcome back to this week's episode of the voice of reason, your weekly dose of all things crime and punishment. Today's topic, although fairly controversial, is extremely simple, police custody. And although some of you may think that is fairly self-explanatory, I know there are some of you that will also wonder, what is police custody? So let me tell you, police custody is exactly how it may sound, it's when a person is detained in the custody of the police, hence police custody, which is usually in a police station, or a setting such as a police station. Well, Skins, Woof and Sprossen, 2015, have stated that police custody serves a variety of purposes. And while that may be true, it is only when done correctly that it has a positive effect. On the other hand, there are many reasons why police custody is in fact extremely harmful. Some of you may be thinking, harmful? How can it be harmful? Well, let me tell you. Firstly, when a person is being detained, if a person is being detained in police custody, they go through a process called a risk assessment. These are really, really important in the process of police custody because it specifies if that cellmate is in danger of harming themselves or another person. And in hindsight, this is a really good addition to the process of police custody, or at least it should be. Stoneman, et al., 2018, stated that each year there are still serious instances of self-harm and even death in custody, which bodes a really big question, what is going on in police custody? Because given that they have this long process of a risk assessment, the fact that it's almost as if the risk assessment is useless. And to add to that, it is extremely clear just by that statement alone that there is very bad inconsistencies during the risk assessment process that is just a huge shock coming on the end of the police department. And it leads to situations like self-harm, or even, as they said, extreme situations of death with suicide. But moving on, human rights. So as some of you may know, human rights are a fairly sore topic when it comes to police detainment, or really police in general, but I feel as though they are an extremely relevant topic on today's focus of police custody. This is because it could be argued that police custody completely goes against human rights for many reasons. The first one being extremely simple. Officers are legally demanded to provide a reason behind arrest. Obviously, this is a huge thing. It's extremely important that the detainee knows exactly why they're being arrested, but this has proved to be a huge shock coming on many occasions. As Noga Thomas and McKinnon, 2016, summarised, there are extremely worrying health concerns within the process of police custody. These can range from anything minor like a simple sprain of the ankle, or to go even as far as risks associated with intoxication, because, as you may know, it is fairly common that those put into police custody are intoxicated, etc. Yeah. There also runs an issue with police not being able to pick up on cellmate's disability or conditions. If it's not pointed out to them, or they don't have a record of it, or they don't ask, etc., then the cellmate would, it would lead to the cellmate being detained in conditions that are nowhere near what they should and deserve to be in. So far, guys, it's not looking good. It's not looking like there's many positives of police custody, right? Well, so far, when a person is detained in police custody, they are not a defendant yet. They are simply a person that has been arrested that, so far, is innocent until the police that detained them are able to come to an understanding using evidence that they've collected while the person has been in police custody. That is the whole aim of police custody, by the way, to give the officers time to be able to piece together parts and come to a conclusion of whether that person is guilty of that crime or not. And then it goes on to sentencing, etc., etc., but as I say, as we are talking about police custody, we won't go into that. But yeah, all in all, police custody is not a very safe way of detaining or keeping an eye on possible criminals, especially within the health space. The health space is a huge shortcoming of police custody in general. And as I have researched police custody, it's fairly, like, uncommon to see stats available for how many people are in custody currently, why are they in custody currently, how many deaths, like, how many mortalities there have been, etc., etc. These are things that aren't readily available. So yeah, my conclusion is that police custody does more damage than positive and that we need to find a way around it, whether that's bringing to light a new risk assessment that can be widely used rather than something that is tampered with along the way. I think that would be a great idea.