AYJ Comment: Inspectorate reports show urgent need for national strategy to overhaul children's secure estate
Two reports released today (21st November 2023) by HM Inspectorate of Prisons have exposed deeply concerning conditions within the secure estate for children, proving yet again the need for an urgent and comprehensive national strategy to address these systemic failures.
HMI Prisons has published its annual report Children in custody 2022–23: An analysis of 12–18-year-olds’ perceptions of their experiences in secure training centres and young offender institutions, as well as its latest inspection report for Werrington Young Offenders Institution (YOI).
Both reports paint a picture of an estate in decline, characterised by incredibly volatile establishments and failing regimes, where children have very limited time out of cell and very poor access to education and purposeful activity.
Key findings in Children in custody 2022-23 include:
55% of children report being racially minoritised; 66% have been in local authority care; and 42% are on remand.
Unwieldly ‘keep apart’ lists dominate life in the secure estate, undermining access to purposeful activity and contributing to just 32% of children in YOIs spending more than two hours out of their cells on weekends.
There has been an overall rise in the rate of assault incidents and the rate of self-harm.
There has been very limited progress to make sure that children from different backgrounds are treated fairly.
The majority of children don’t feel cared for by staff.
In addition, key findings on Werrington include:
35% of the population were over 18 years old. The institution was unable to meet their needs and it was “clearly a distraction from Werrington’s core purpose to meet the needs of children.”
Increasing incidents of disorder and concerted indiscipline, fuelled by conflict between groups and unaddressed frustrations about regimes, has led to the use of dogs and pyrotechnics. Opportunities to de-escalate have been missed.
Safeguarding and child protection processes were in disarray.
Commenting on the reports, AYJ CEO Pippa Goodfellow said:
“Years of failures and a lack of direction has led the secure estate to this deeply concerning point. The new youth justice minister must make it his top priority to get to grips with addressing the challenges children in custody are facing, with an ambitious national strategy.
These reports are clear that fundamental to improving conditions is building trusting relationships between children and staff. Introducing PAVA spray to the children’s estate would critically undermine this goal, only serving to increase conflict and violence. The new minister must be resolute and take this option off the table.
A comprehensive future estates strategy must be developed with full and open consultation with stakeholders and children and young people. It must carefully consider the future of holding 18 year olds in the children’s estate; have clear timescales for closing Young Offender Institutions and Secure Training Centres and increasing capacity in more appropriate provision; and set out what the government is doing ensure that custody is used only as an absolute last resort. Every day that goes by without doing so places the wellbeing of these children at risk, as they remain in failed institutions and a system in crisis.”