Joseph Scholes

EDM number 1423 in 2003-04, proposed by Chris Ruane on 30/06/2004.

That this House notes that Joseph Scholes was a 16 year old boy who hanged himself in Stoke Heath Young Offenders Institution on 24th March 2002 just nine days into a two year sentence; further notes despite being recognised by all concerned as a deeply disturbed child he was allocated to Prison Service accommodation without the standards of care needed for such a vulnerable child; further notes that the number of children sent to prison has doubled in the last 10 years, with increasingly younger children being given custody, and that concern has been expressed by the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child and the Joint Committee on Human Rights on the practice of sentencing children to custody; further notes that, since 1990, 25 children have taken their own lives in prisons and that Yvonne Scholes, Joseph's mother has, together with INQUEST and Nacro and supported by key penal and children's rights organisations and charities as well as honourable Members and Members of the House of Lords, called for a public inquiry; further notes that the Coroner, as part of his public duty to prevent the recurrence of fatalities, reported to the Home Secretary following the inquest into Joseph's death that there should be a public inquiry; and therefore calls upon the Government to set up a comprehensive public inquiry to deal with the many issues concerning Joseph's death so that lessons can be learnt about the treatment of children in the criminal justice system.

This motion has been signed by a total of 111 MPs.