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Children in prison will be given the right to argue against being placed in solitary confinement as a result of a judgement today, writes Clare Jerrom.

Justice Jack has ruled that children should be given the right to make representations before a prison governor makes the decision to place them in segregation.

Until now, children could be placed in solitary confinement without having the opportunity to put their case to the decision maker.  For example, if a prison officer was told that prisoner A had a grudge against prisoner B and wanted to harm him, prisoner A could be placed on segregation without being consulted on the issue.

Chris Callender, the head of the legal team at the Howard League for Penal Reform, which took the case to the High Court, said today’s decision is a recognition that the courts realise that children in the penal system have rights and need to be treated fairly.

The case was taken to the High Court by the charity which was acting on behalf of SP, a 17-year-old girl with severe mental health problems.

SP was transferred to a women’s prison from a local authority secure children’s home on her 17th birthday. She was placed on suicide watch and the following day was transferred to the segregation unit for three weeks. During this time she was alone in her cell for around 23 hours per day.

The Howard League argued that SP should have been given the opportunity to make representations to the governor before the decision was made to place her in isolation.

In June, Justice Jack ruled that children should be entitled to challenge the decision before they were sent to a segregation block. The Home Secretary sought to overturn this ruling, but this was blocked by the Court of Appeal today.

Chris Callender, head of the charity’s legal team said: “I find it remarkable that the Home Office took exception to the idea that vulnerable child prisoners should not be asked to comment on the reasons for such an extreme and possibly damaging restriction on their incarceration.”