Boy kept in solitary confinement wins £31,500 payout

Fifteen-year-old with serious mental health problems subjected to ‘inhuman or degrading treatment’

The UK government has agreed to pay £31,500 compensation after accepting that a 15-year-old boy with serious mental health problems was subjected to “inhuman or degrading treatment” by being kept in solitary confinement for almost two months.

The boy, identified in court documents as AB, was locked alone in his cell for more than 23 hours a day for at least the first 55 days of his detention in Feltham prison, according to the Howard League for Penal Reform, which represented him.