As the government prepares its plans for secure schools, it must surely be considering the tremendous harm caused to children by imprisonment across the decades. One such indicator is the number of children who have died in prisons. Data recently released by the Ministry of Justice shows 52 children died in young offender institutions (and … Read more
The government has revealed the five companies which were invited to tender for the contracts to run Medway and Rainsbrook secure training centres. These are prisons for children aged 12 to 17 (sometimes 18 year-olds are placed there too). The five-year contracts were worth £236 million in total. In September 2015, the Youth Justice Board … Read more
The Youth Justice Board has announced today that it plans to reduce by 15% the number of places it funds in secure children’s homes, from 138 to 117 places. This is a 47% reduction since 2009, when the Youth Justice Board contracted 220 places. In September 2015, 70% of detained children were held in young … Read more
In a letter to Lord McNally, the Chair of the Youth Justice Board, Article 39, the Howard League for Penal Reform and INQUEST say we are “deeply troubled” that MTCnovo, the company taking over the management of Rainsbrook secure training centre, appears to have no experience of looking after vulnerable children in a residential setting. … Read more
The Youth Justice Board has published research it commissioned in 2013 on the use of head-holds in child prisons. Twenty-two adults studying at Coventry University, aged between 18 and 24, volunteered to have their heart and lung function tested in a laboratory whilst they were subject to 12 different head-holds. The psychological impact on the … Read more