Appropriate Adult Scheme in the UK - Essay Example

Critically evaluate attached ment with regard to the current use of appropriate adult scheme in the uk Considering northern Ireland's commentson using 'trained' appropriate adults and the system currently used in the u.k (untrained) considering PACE. Relating to Appropriate Adult Hodgson outlines that one problem facing the police' reporting is that there is a difference between the police' call that only four percent of the incarcerated juveniles and mentally incapacitated needed appropriate adults as compared to the other reporting group that says that there should have been around fifteen to twenty percent of the total jailed juveniles or mentally retarded that needed an appropriate adult to intervene with an on going police investigation. This shows that some police sergeants are well briefed regarding the conditions as when an appropriate adult will be called to help in an ongoing investigation of a minor or mentally incapacitated. There are also some medical personnel who do not know whether the patient qualifies to have an appropriate adult to sit beside the minor or mentally retarded during an ongoing investigation. Appropriate Adult In view of difficulties on the supply side and informed by the report of the Criminal Justice Review Group (2000) and fact finding visits to Derbyshire, Leicestershire and South Yorkshire, the Police Service of Northern Ireland has called for the establishment of an appropriate adult scheme. Such a scheme would help to protect the rights of vulnerable suspects REFERENCE: http://www.britannica.com/eb/article-9003496 Due to the some isolated reports of possible or probable police brutality or force exerted to suspects to admit to a crime in the regions of Derbyshire, Leicestershire and South Yorkshire, The Police Service of Northern Ireland has mounted a big campaign for the training and getting of volunteers for the jobs as appropriate adult. They will act as witness and guardian of the accused minor or mentally retarded during the actual investigation or interrogation of the suspects. REFERENCE: Raitt, Fiona, Balancing rights of complainer and accused, The Journal, September 2001, page 17 The Police and Criminal Act of 1984 and other provisions of the Northern Ireland (PACE NI Order 1989) allows the police the powers to arrests, to search and detain, it is the codes of practice and other relevant provisions that should be studied that affects the detainee's loss of the detainee's freedom to travel. The greater concern in this issue is the protection of the rights to remain silent and to ask help of a lawyer to be given by the state if the detainee cannot pay for the lawyer. Due to the few lawyers the government has under its blanket, Appropriate adults are the next best thing to protect the detainees who are below eighteen years old and mentally unhealthy. The minimum statutory requirement, according to the code and other related laws of United Kingdom, is for an Appropriate Adult to be the acting 'lawyer' of the detainee who is either less than eighteen years old or mentally unstable when the police officer starts the interrogation process. Regarding the below eighteen year old criteria, we can prove that the detainee is a minor through the identification card check. But to determine whether a detainee is mentally disturbed resulting to his unwanted and unknowing confession to a crime, a medical doctor has to issue a medical certificate certifying he or she is mentally retarded. Right to remain silent The law states that any evidence , according the very famous Miranda(forensic-evidence.com) case law of the United States, taken by the police while a witness is in custody in violation of the detainee's right to remain silent rule will not be accepted as evidence in a court proceedings. Any confession made must be done thru the advice of a lawyer to be admissible. Otherwise this confession will not be admitted as evidence in any court of law in Ireland. On the other side of the coin, If a witness willingly admits to crime, out of remorse, Any confessions will not be accepted by the courts. The wisdom of this provision is because there may have been force exerted by the police or persons with guns or superior force to extract the confession. When an appropriate adult bears witness during the confession of the person accused, there is now a strong evidence that no force was exerted by the peace loving and innocent police officer. REFERENCE: Britannica (http://www.britannica.com/eb/article-9003496) REFERENCE: Law lords, Human Rights Goups Uite for Torture Apeal, The Journal, April 27, 2005 Appropriate Adult Candidates: The appropriate adults are usually from " a) The parent, guardian or, if the juvenile is in local authority or voluntary organisation care, or is otherwise being looked after under the Children Act 1989, a person representing that authority or organisation; b) a social worker of a local authority social services department; c) c failing these, some other responsible adult aged 18 or over who is not a police officer or employed by the police. d) For people who have a mental vulnerability, an appropriate adult means: e) c a relative, guardian or other person responsible for their care or custody; f) c someone experienced in dealing with mentally disordered or mentally vulnerable people but who is not a police officer or employed by the police; g) c failing these, some other responsible adult aged 18 or over who is not a police officer or employed by the police. In the case of a person who has a mental disorder, guidance within Code C paragraph 1D, indicates that it is preferable if the AA is someone who is experienced or trained in their care rather than a relative or other person who may lack such qualifications. The role of the Appropriate Adult is set out in Code C, paragraph 11.17 and has been described as one of the key safeguards for any young person attending a police station (Quinn & Jackson, 2003). With juveniles and vulnerable adults, the presence and indeed intervention of AAs to protect vulnerable suspects could be seen as an essential element of an equitable criminal justice system." The appropriated adult's main purpose is to witness and if necessary explain the various formalities in the detention process and an appropriate adult can, for example, override the suspects who decide not to (Sheree Brewin and Andrew Bailey, 2004) COMMENT: Most of the Appropriate Adults come from the inner circle of family and friends of the accused. The next in rank is the social worker. The appropriate adult can tell the suspect that he has the right to remain silent, anything that the suspect will say or do may be used against the suspect in any court. Due to difficulty in getting appropriate adults. DELAY OF ARRIVAL OF APPROPRIATE ADULT Most detainees are released within three hours after arrest. Therefore, someone will have to volunteer as early as possible for the appropriate adult position. Therefore, the incarcerated persons will have to waste some hours because no appropriate adult has arrived. Prospective Selection of Appropriate Adults a) Parents/relatives The difficulty in hiring volunteer appropriate adults is because the parent or relatives, instead of thinking on the side of the minor, would scold the children. Another reason is that the parent or relative is drunk or is sick and can not travel to the interrogation area. The parents' scolding of the child will instead force the child to admit to the crime as the parent bargains for the release of the suspected relative. Another good reason is that the parent or relative could also be "forced" or influence by the police officer on duty to admit to the crime which did not actually happen. This is because the parent has no training on how to implement the rights of the accused because he does not know the legal procedures and functions of the parent's being an appropriate adult. Therefore this relative is not a good appropriate adult. b) Social Worker The social worker is a government employee who has passed the government exam on social work. He or she is trained on how to care for the old and the children who have run away from home. They are also spending their useful lives caring for children that have been physically and mentally abused by relatives, usually parents. They deal with the mental healing and the feeding of these children of God. One advantage of their being tasks to act as appropriate adult is that they are serious and have sincere and brotherly or sisterly love that is useful if they are finally asked to be appropriate adults to the minor children and the mentally retarded. The disadvantage is that, since they are government employees, like the police, then some social workers may not be too eager to go against the police who are like them, government employees. Since the social worker is not a relative of the accused minor or mentally retarded, the social worker may not have that extra drive to help the accused minor or mentally retarded. This is true if the social worker has so many children in the government child care center to take care of. c) Trained Appropriate Adult This could be the relative or parent or social worker. The important thing is that they undergo a short course training on the procedures on appropriate adult implementation of the legal right and privileges afforded the accused. Training of Appropriate Adult The training of appropriate adults should be the priority of the state. The rights of the minor or the mentally unstable is at stake here. There is a saying that goes, it is better for free ten guilty persons than to jail one innocent human being. Therefore, if the appropriate adult is untrained, the innocent will get the death penalty for a crime he or she was forced to admit due to use of force or ignorance. Police - Civilian Protector or Criminal The above essay portion gives a gloomy scenario that just because in some isolated cases, the police have overstepped their authority, mostly unintentional of course, the civilian community is made to believe that these remote incidents are a normal everyday activity. It seems that the police go to police academy to learn standard operating procedures that will allow them to violate the laws of the land, especially in this case, like violation of the right to remain silent and seek lawyer's assistance or alternative adult help during the investigation stage of a criminal prosecution process. This will surely create fear in the eyes of the community that they may pull out their guns and just shoot anybody they will is the bad guy. The scenario being played by some media personnel is to let the public believe that we should not mess up with the police or else we will be picked up shut up in jail and made to rot. In the guise of freedom of the press. But if this is so, then why do the media most of the time give news that relates to killing, murders, rapes, fires, calamities, graft and corruption and sometime even bold and naked ladies If we do our own research statistics, the public will know that only around five percent are what we call violations of human rights such as forcible getting from the suspects confessions just to increase their police rank. In other places, this could be lower. The police have the right to be declared proudly as innocent of any newspaper report or television news that they violated the laws of the land, like forcing a minor or mentally incapacitated to sign a confession of a crime that they did or even did not commit. Charges should be filed in court for the supposed human rights abuses. Both sides will be given their day in court. Only the court can say based on evidences presented by both the claimants and the defendants that the accused police sergeant is innocent or guilty. REFERENCE FOR ABOVE ESSAY: Brewin & Bailey, Appropriated adults provided for vulnerable people who are are questioned by police, International Journal of Police Science and Management Vol 6 no. 4 Conclusion The training of the appropriate adult is a must for the state. For what is at stake here is the innocence of minor or a mentally incapacitated human being. Although we say that only God knows who is guilty or not, our law penalizes a person if the evidences point to the fact that he did it. These evidences could be circumstantial - being there and having the deadly weapons when the unlawful act occurred. Another evidence is confession by the minor or mentally incapacitated. The relative or the parent is the best appropriate adult if the parent will be trained on the responsibilities, functions of the job. The social worker is another lesser appropriate adult that can be tapped to act as appropriate adult. The pure heart of a social worker will create a scenario that there was no force on the minor or the mentally retarded to admit to the crime or misdemeanor. In short, it is does not matter whether the appropriate adult is a relative or not, as long as the appointed appropriate adult can deliver the punch when the time to advice the minor or mentally incapacitated occurs. The Hodgson story above shows that there is a disparity between the police report as to when a person needs an appropriate adult or mentally incapacitated. The difference of only the lowly four percent as compared to the average of between fifteen to twenty percent as per research conducted by Clare and Gudjonsson (1993). This shows that there is an actual mistrust of how the police do their work in some isolated areas of Ireland. REFERENCE: Mackenzie, Roger, Bringing human rights to the prison population, The Journal, January 2003, page 26 There must be voluntary work offered by some good intentioned citizens to help go out of their way to act as appropriate adults to the minor or mentally undeveloped of our society. But money is involved in this decision making process. If the appropriate adult will be trained, the question is who will train them. Another question to ask is who will pay the bills of the training agencies Will the government pay for it Or will a civic minded non government organization come up with the money and pay for the bill Or will the police organization pay for the bill, since it is the police force that needs to clean its name in some isolated districts. In this regard, all are enjoined to help bring this training project to reality. The training program will surely benefit the police organization, the region or community where such appropriate adult training is implemented, the parents and relatives of the minor or mentally incapacitated and, last but not the least, the juveniles and the mentally incapacitated. There are police violations of human rights, like in this case forcing an accused minor or mentally incapacitated, to admit that they did the crime. For fear of their life or limb, the minor or mentally incapacitated will confess and admit to the wrongdoing. This is what we hear in the newspapers and television or even exaggerated in the movies. We must give also the police their human right to be declared innocent until they are proven guilty in a court of law. We must not accept as bible truth the news reports that a police sergeant manhandled or violated the human rights of a prisoner. This is but fair treatment of the police who are willing to sacrifice their own lives for the protection of lives and properties under their jurisdiction and control. The court will not accept the confession because this is in violation of the human right to remain silent and ask legal help from lawyers. In this case there is temporary help from alternative adults who are trained to help advice the minor and mentally retarded as to the proper way to act so they will not be abused by the police officers who just want promotion or fame. REFERENCES: Brewin & Bailey, Appropriated adults provided for vulnerable people who are are questioned by police, International Journal of Police Science and Management Vol 6 no. 4 Dickerson vs Miranda, Police procedures,Forensic - Evidence.com Britannica (http://www.britannica.com/eb/article-9003496) Raitt, Fiona, Balancing rights of complainer and accused, The Journal, September 2001, page 17 Mackenzie, Roger, Bringing human rights to the prison population, The Journal January 2003, page 26 Law lords, Human Rights Goups Uite for Torture Apeal,The Journal, April 27, 2005 Style: APA Language Style: English UK Grade: 2:1 Pages: 10 Sources: 4 T Read More