Forum Topic

Only 22 Police Custody Cells in Ealing

Stephen Pound MP pointed out in The House of Commons this week that as a result of Police cuts we have just 22 Custody Cells in the whole of Ealing. That's covering a built up area of 21 square miles with an official population of 320,000 people. I am no law and order expert but this does seem to be rather a small number of cells. What do others think?

Eric Alan Leach ● 4918d4 Comments

The vans outside the courts are simply there to ferry people to and from their court appearances.They go back to the cells afterwards.

Tony Colliver ● 4917d

Remember the prisons in England are full.Also I have often seen secure vans (holding prisoners on remand perhaps) parked in the car park of the Magistrate's Court in West Ealing.To expand my point about cells in Police Stations in Ealing - we only have two fully functioning Police Stations in our town. Is this really enough? Steve Pound is for me the best MP I have ever come across; is very intelligent; and he rarely gets his facts wrong.

Eric Alan Leach ● 4917d

surely what matters is not how many there are, but the average / max utilisation is? If there really are only 20 and all cells are only used at the same time a few times a year then is this a big deal? And what about the forces that border Ealing - as with any resource, peaks in demand can be reduced by sharing i.e. moving people under arrest to cells managed by Hounslow etc.The other thing that counts is how long people spend in cells - 22 cells might be fine if they are typically only occupied for short periods... the current trials for immediate justice in which courts sit at night and weekends will mean some straightforward offences are brought before courts hours after the offences take place. Maybe Stephen Pound already has the facts / done the thinking on the above but somehow I doubt it.

Tony Gould ● 4917d

Eric, it may be worth looking at the terminology used. Are custody suites the same as custody cells? Acton police station has custody suites, these have three rooms per prisoner: one to keep the detainee in, one for the detainee to confer with their solicitor or interpreter (I jest not!) in private, and one for the detainee to berinterviewed in. I think I have got this right, though I am open to correction. The three are closely linked into a single unit suite to maximised security when dealing with terrorists. So do custody cell numbers include custody suites or are these additional or are they all counted as the same thing?

John Arthur Forest ● 4918d