Hundreds of potentially unwell children in England and Wales have been placed in police cells after being detained under the Mental Health Act as officers had no place else to take them.

In the first 11 months of 2013, 305 under-18s were detained in cells, with some held for over 24 hours. In 2012 there were 385 such detentions.

The figures were released under the Freedom of Information Act following a request by BBC Radio 4’s the World This Weekend.

Reported by the Independent. You can read the full story. 

Matthew Burgess
http://www.mattburgess.co
I am a journalist and author. I am a journalist at the UK edition of WIRED magazine. In 2015, my first book Freedom of Information: A Practical Guide for UK Journalists, was published. My second book Reed Hastings: Building Netflix, was published in March 2020. I created FOI Directory in 2012 and have maintained it in my spare time ever since.