DEATHS IN CUSTODY
Statistics of deaths in custody in England and Wales are issued annually, and are available on the Home Office website. Home Office Circular No 13 of 2002, dated 26 March 2002, deals with the reporting of deaths of members of the public during or following police contact (which includes deaths in police custody).
Suicide in Prison was the subject of a thematic review by HM Chief Inspector of Prisons for England & Wales, published in May 1999 by the Home Office, "Suicide is everyone's concern". Chapter 4, dealing with deaths in prison, is particularly relevant to the coroner's inquest.
Advance disclosure before inquests was recommended by the Stephen Lawrence Inquiry for all inquests. The Home Office response was to accept the recommendation only in relation to deaths in custody (which of course the Stephen Lawrence case was not). But even this is not statutory.
Instead, the Prison Service on 1 April 1999 issued a protocol giving guidance on the disclosure of information (by the Prison Service, not by the coroner) on a death in prison, and the Home Office on 28 April 1999 issued a Circular, No 20 of 1999, giving guidance on the disclosure of information (by the police, not by the coroner) on a death in police custody. This latter circular has now been replaced by Circular No 31 of 2002, dated 5 June 2002.
Neither the Prison Service nor the police scheme has the force of law, and neither involves the coroner giving any disclosure at all. However under each scheme, coroners are to be consulted before the Prison Service or the police (as appropriate) gives the disclosure contemplated.
On 31 March 2003, Liberty launched a Report entitled "Deaths in Custody: Redress and Remedies". This looks only at deaths in custody, but looks at all aspects of them (not only the coroners' role). So far as the coroner system is concerned, "Liberty believes the current inquest system should be retained but radically improved - still, where possible, using the expertise that has been developed so far by coroners." Further, "inquests need clearer rules of procedure", and the "inquest system should be generally adversarial", providing the coroner with an adjudicative role ...". The "usual civil rules of disclosure and legal safeguards should apply to the inquest". The "privilege against self-incrimination should be abolished", there "should be a full review of existing verdicts, with a verdict indicating negligence or a failure in a general duty of care introduced to the prescribed list", and "means-testing for public funding [for legal representation at inquests in death in custody cases] should be abolished". Moreover, Liberty on 27 June 2003 produced a response to the Home Office consultation on a statutory prison complaints procedure and procedure for investigating deaths in prison custody.
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Last modified: Monday, 09-Aug-2004 08:53:11 BST by: Malcolm Bishop