© Jurgen Chill
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The government says it still intends to extend a new manslaughter offence to prisons, police stations and mental health hospitals, and to do so by April 2011.
The offence is part of the Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide Act 2007. It could apply where a person dies because an organisation – an employer, for example, or a service provider - breached its duty of care.
Though the Act itself came into effect in April 2008, the government exempted places of detention, because it said they might need as much as five years to prepare. They aren’t going to get that.
In a new report to Parliament, the Ministry of Justice reveals there’s a lot to be done in the criminal justice system.
* Prison capacity will rise to 96,000 and many existing cells will be improved.
* The recent Bradley Report, on how the criminal justice system treats people with mental disorder or a learning disability, will be implemented in full.
* The new Ministerial Board on Deaths in Custody will get into its swing.
* More work will be done on the risks presented by transferring prisoners.
* The Person Escort Record will be introduced nationwide and the Police National Computer made available in more prisons.
* New IT will make it easier to share information across the youth justice system.
* Proper arrangements will be made for NHS primary care trusts to take responsibility for healthcare in police custody suites.
* There will be greater integration of prison and community drug treatment services (the budget for which will be increased more than three-fold).
* Policy custody staff will continue to receive expert training.
* Prison staff will be taught about the system for managing prisoners identified as being at risk of suicide or self-harm, and all policies will be reviewed.
* The government will implement the recommendations of a recent review of the use of restraint on juveniles.
Not all of this work will have to be completed in the next few months, of course. A great deal will have to change, however, if places of detention and those responsible for them are to be ready to meet the challenge of the new Act. The cost, should they fail, is likely to be high.
The new report is available here.
