DETAINEES in court custody in Hampshire, Wiltshire and the Isle of Wight were treated well and held in reasonable conditions, inspectors found.

But they raised concerns about the regular handcuffing of children under 18, even in secure environments.

Peter Clarke, Chief Inspector of Prisons, said: “For many, the custodial environment can be unfamiliar and stressful, but custody staff engaged with detainees in a compassionate and caring way and were skilled at allaying fears and defusing tension and anxieties.”

Three agencies, two public and one privately contracted, run court custody facilities in the region.

Mr Clarke added: “There was a clear strategic focus on promoting safe and decent escort, custody and court services. The inter-agency relationships between those involved in the delivery of court custody were good.” Cleaning and maintenance work was delivered by a contractor and was generally effective.

There was, however, still room for some improvement, Mr Clarke said. “While there was a commitment to prioritising the cases of those detained in court custody, it was not always possible to do so, and delays in solicitors attending court custody were more acute than we have seen elsewhere.”

A further concern centred on the use of handcuffs. “We have made repeated recommendations concerning the lack of an individual and risk-based approach to handcuffing but continued to find that all detainees, including children, were routinely handcuffed in the secure custody environment.”

Relatively few children were held in court custody. Only about 4.5 per cent of the throughput of court custody in the year before the inspection were children. Transport and care for those children moved to and from secure training centres and secure children’s homes were mostly appropriate.

Otherwise, the report noted, “children were essentially treated the same as adults. They were still routinely handcuffed and accommodated in a cell, which did not make for a positive experience”.

Inspectors identified the care for women’s needs as good practice. The report noted: “The new information sheet on females in custody was displayed in suites and handed out to women on arrival and the wider range of menstrual care products available in women’s toilets meant that women’s needs were now being met.”

A team toured the area in August.

The biggest number of cells is at Winchester Crown Court, 26; Southampton Magistrates, 22; Portsmouth Magistrates, 18. The others are: Basingstoke, seven; Newport, nine; Portsmouth Combined Court, 11; Salisbury, 12, Southampton Combined Court, eight; Swindon Combined Court, six; Swindon Magistrates, five.

A total of 8,723 detainees were held between June 1 2018 to May 31 2019.