Continued Concern over Condition of Police Cells

3.42.59pm UTC (GMT +0000) Wed 21st Dec 2005

The poor quality and over crowding of police cells in Twickenham, Richmond and Teddington has again been highlighted by the Custody Visiting Panel in its annual report. Despite recent refurbishment and the installation of CCTV cameras the panel again concludes that:

· There is a serious problem of cleanliness

· Mentally ill people, who should be in hospital, are being held in police cells

· Cell buzzers are not being regularly monitored

The local police are well aware of the problems but cannot obtain funding for a proper overhaul of custody suites. Vincent Cable said: "police cells are, of course, not a hotel, but the people kept there are usually remand prisoners who have not been found guilty of an offence and deserve to be treated properly. Moreover, the acute shortage of cells means that people who should be remanded are having to be released on to the streets. This is one area where the Met Police are not up to scratch".