This month we saw the publication of a damning report by His Majesty’s Inspector of Prisons following an unannounced visit he had made to Hassockfield detention centre (now called the Derwentside IRC) back in August.
The best response we can make is quote Alison Stancliffe from our friends at No to Hassockfield, who was quoted in the Northern Echo saying: “This report confirmed what anyone with a personal knowledge of the IRC’s location will tell you – that the site of a former notorious boys’ home was always going to be a glaringly unsuitable location for the only dedicated residential facility in the country for women caught up in the UK detention system.
“One major concern of the inspectorate is that the care for women at risk is below acceptable standards. They found women detained in the Centre with proven experience of torture and abuse who should not have been in Derwentside in the first place, under the Home Office’s own ‘adults at risk in detention’ policy.”
