Town holding centre for detainees is criticised

A HOLDING centre for detainees in Loughborough has come under fire by the prison’s watchdog.

The short term holding facility in South Street, Loughborough is a stop- off for people facing deportation, whether they have committed crimes or just overstayed their visa.

It is run by Tascor on behalf of the Home Office and consists of a holding room and a bathroom. Usually the detainees only stay there for a matter of hours before being transported elsewhere as they are prepared for deportation.

A surprise check was carried out recently by HM Chief Inspector of Prisons and a report of the findings was released last week.

It highlights the recommendations made in the past to Tascor after a 2013 inspection that have not been acted upon.

They include handcuffing the detainees regardless of whether it was necessary, keeping unrelated male and female detainees in the same room and failing to arrange speedy onward transportation of the detainees.

The inspectors complained about the lack of a toilet seat in the bathroom. All of these were described as “repeated recommendations” that have not been achieved.

The report also highlighted that the centre still failed to provide telephone interpretation for non-English speakers and did not provide access to the internet for detainees.

The report states: “At our inspection in 2013, we made 10 recommendations, four of which we found at this inspection were achieved, one was partially achieved and five not achieved.

“Detainees were still routinely handcuffed for the very short distance from vans into and out of the facility, without regard to individual risk.

“No children had been held at the facility since the last inspection, but men and women were still held in the same room.

“As at the last inspection, there was no safe- guarding adults policy.”

In the three months leading up to the latest inspection, a total of 47 detainees had been kept at the facility, none for more than nine hours.

But even that was longer than necessary, the report concluded.

It stated: “Staff said that delays in onward transfer to immigration removal centres had prolonged the time detainees were held at the facility.

“Detainees could make telephone calls and had access to a fax, but had no access to emails or the internet.

“The facility was only suitable for short periods of detention. The single holding room was in a reasonable state of repair and was clean, with some natural light.

“However, the toilet had no seat.”

There were also concerns that people being held at the facility were unable to get fresh air or smoke.

The report said: “Detainees had no access to time in the fresh air.

There have been 47 detainees at the facility in the past three months.

“Detainees who smoked were unable to do so and no nicotine replacements were available.”