His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Prisons has today published a review of government action to end the unlawful use of solitary confinement in child prisons, following ministerial acknowledgment four years ago that the treatment of children was “completely unacceptable” and would end.
In a foreword to the review report, Charlie Taylor, HM Chief Inspector of Prisons, states: “It is a serious indictment of the Youth Custody Service that children continue to be held in what amounts to solitary confinement, four years after we published our thematic report”.
Today’s report reveals that in 2023/24:
- Official Youth Custody Service statistics show there were 1,038 instances of children being separated – kept alone in their cell either as the prison’s means of dealing with violence and conflict, or frightened children taking the only protective action available to them and ‘electing’ to separate themselves. Inspectors “were very concerned to find that [children who asked to stay in their cells, in order to try and protect themselves], who were victims of bullying and violence, were often separated for long periods of time”.
- There were 179 instances of children being separated for between 21 and 100 days.
- 21 children were separated for more than 100 days.
- The pledge to allow children just one hour in the open air a day had not been fulfilled. In three of five child prisons, one hour in the fresh air a day “was often only delivered for half that time” – that is, for 30 minutes. Inspectors also “found occasions where it was not offered to children every day”.
- Inspectors found “evidence that some children and young people at Cookham Wood almost never came out of their cells. In the worst case a child only had time in the open air on a third of the days separated”. (This prison was later refashioned into an adult prison).
- When children were allowed into the fresh air – for 30 or 60 minutes maximum, the conditions were sometimes appalling: “At Wetherby children spent their outdoor time in a cage-like environment”.
- Education was “rarely” provided to children. In Cookham Wood, the average amount of education provided to children separated across a single month was “fewer than three minutes per day”.
- Safeguards for children effectively amounted to “cursory checks that too often had little impact on the daily experience of the child involved”. Managers are meant to visit separated children daily, these are individuals who have “authority to make changes to [the child’s] situation…These checks are an important way to safeguard children’s well-being, as long periods of separation can significantly impact on mental well-being”. Inspectors found that the majority of checks by prison managers “were not meaningful”.
- In Werrington child prison, it appears inspectors found unlawful use of separation: “We saw evidence that some children and young people had recently arrived and had been unofficially separated for several days. We also found evidence that although some children and young people had been taken off separation, unit staff were unaware of the decision, and they had not been returned to a normal routine”.
Carolyne Willow, Article 39’s Director, said:
“Today’s report should embarrass government into action. The scale and longevity of serious child protection failure suggests we do not know how to look after children in our country, or that we do not care enough about children to put things right. Neither of these propositions should be palatable to government ministers inheriting this chaos.
“I understand the government is following its predecessors in seriously considering introducing PAVA spray into child prisons. Such a move would be a momentous sign of defeat, of a government lacking the vision and strategy to turn children’s lives around. It would undoubtedly increase violence and conflict within these anachronistic institutions, putting more children and staff at risk.”
Nearly 7 in 10 children in custody have formerly been in the care of local authorities. The last government conceded in 2016 that child prisons could not be reformed, and committed to replace them with child welfare-based settings. In August 2024, the End Child Imprisonment campaign published a review of evidence of pledges made by successive governments, from the late 1990s onwards, and subsequent action. The review made five recommendations for the new Labour government:
1. Affirm the removal of children from the prison estate, and the closure of child prisons.
2. Establish a wide-ranging independent review of the circumstances in which children may be deprived of their liberty – through criminal justice, health and social care routes – as a means of making it a genuine measure of last resort, for the shortest period of time, and consistent with established national and international childcare standards and knowledge.
3. Publish a national strategy with timetable for the expedited closure of child prisons (YOIs for children and the remaining STC), which focuses on supporting children and their families within their own communities and using only childcare establishments when deprivation of liberty is demonstrably the only possible means of avoiding serious and immediate harm to the child or others.
4. Use the forthcoming Crime and Policing Bill to introduce statutory provisions that restrict the criminal courts’ use of deprivation of liberty for children.
5. Transfer ministerial and civil service responsibility for children deprived of their liberty through the criminal courts from the Ministry of Justice to the Department for Education. Completely move the Youth Custody Service out of HM Prisons and Probation Service, integrating it within teams responsible for SCHs and other relevant children’s social care policy within the Department for Education.
