Podcast

Police custody should be changed due to the difficulties and trauma experienced by detainees, leading to mental health issues. Prevention measures, such as allowing more phone calls and providing designated counselors, should be implemented. The Human Rights Act of 1998, specifically Article 5, guarantees rights and legal advice for detainees, but research shows that these rights are not always met. Treatment of young people in police custody is also a concern, as they are seen as easy targets and vulnerable. Custody affects not only the individual but also their relationships and employment. Changes are needed to prevent negative outcomes, including deaths in custody. The Joint Committee of Human Rights has recommended improvements in police officer training. Hi, today I'm going to discuss police custody and why rules and laws around police custody should be changed. When someone is arrested they are taken into police custody and they are held in a police station for 24 hours whilst a decision to charge them is being made. The Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984, commonly known as PACE nowadays, establishes the rights of the public but also the power of the police throughout different criminal justice processes including detention rights and treatments which we are going to talk about today. This is stated on the good.uk website, published in 2013. Firstly, police custody can be a very difficult and traumatic experience for many detainees. Many go on to suffer with bad mental health. Samuel E. Eitel conducted a study to examine psychiatric and developmental morbidity amongst detainees. Although their sample was only 134 people, it showed sufficient evidence for sadness. 18% were at risk of suicide and they had the highest amount of needs not met whilst they were in police custody. 29% suffered from a mental illness such as depression or anxiety and 40% of them it was a long term mental illness. This would suggest that prevention needs to be more established at police stations to prevent serious mental health problems or to make sure it is not on such a big scale. This could be allowing a phone call to a loved one more than once while being held there or this could be for longer than 2 minutes or to have designated counsellors for each detainee. On the legislationgroup.uk website it lays out the Human Rights Act of 1998 and all the articles involved within this. For police custody I am going to look at Article 5, the Rights, Liberty and Security. Throughout each state the rights a person has before, during and after detention such as the arrestage should be formed in their language and the language they understand, the reason for the arrest and the charge against them. Whilst being in custody a person's liberty is being removed because they can't leave the cell which was imposed by a higher authority. They also have the right to legal advice. A lot of research has been conducted to see if this right is being met. Specifically in the UK, Skins in 2019 discovered that 60% of detainees asked for legal advice but only 48% of them received that legal advice. Further research was conducted in 2011 by Pleasant for Town. They found that not everyone wants legal advice as only 45% requested it. However, only 22% of this 45% ended up having a legal advisor. This would suggest that needs are not being met while people are in police custody. Another reason against police custody is the treatment young people face while being held in police custody. Although police custody can be applied to utilitarianism theory which was formed by Jeremy Bentham in 1789 because it examines the bigger consequences for the public if the suspect goes back out into society. It could also make the detainees, even if they are innocent, scared to offend all or again because being in a cell for 24 hours gives them a glimpse of what imprisonment would be like on a longer scale. Even with this theory in mind, they are still innocent until proven guilty and should be tried as such. Kemp did research in 2014 about youth and childhood vulnerability in relation to police custody. They found that children and young people were targeted because they were seen as easy targets by staff because of their age and because there was a lack of understanding of vulnerability. This study strengthens my argument because it does state it is hard to measure what vulnerability is and what it isn't but throughout this article they do explain how they measured vulnerability. They interviewed seers and found that their view of the young person affected their treatment. They would be left in their cell for longer periods of time and their behaviour would become difficult even when they were just afraid. Lastly, as I mentioned earlier, custody takes away a person's liberty. This could also affect not just the individual but also the family and friends because it strains that relationship. Or it could cause problems with the suspect's work because they cannot ring to say they cannot attend work especially in cases where the custody is extended to 36 hours. It could lead to them losing a job. Chalmers did find in 2017 that the loss of liberty does cause what they described as a dissolution of bonds with friends and family. It could also have more severe consequences because the lack of social ties could cause them to re-offend once they have been allowed back out of police custody after 24 hours. It could also cause problems if they are a single parent, plans need to be made for the children or in a worse case, the children could be put into foster care because they have no one to look after them, especially if they end up going to prison. To round off this podcast, rules around police custody need to be changed to prevent bad outcomes, specifically death in custody. Kevin Gourney wrote an article in 2005 about an inquiry the Joint Committee of Human Rights conducted about death in custody after there was a large amount of death being regarded. They had serious concerns and made strong recommendations about strengthening practices such as improving training of police officers in police custody. Thank you for listening.