Bad news about youth custody generally comes either in the form of a tragedy or a warning. This week’s is the latter: a report from the chief inspector of prisons, Peter Clarke, identifying an “extraordinary” decline in safety at Feltham young offender institution in outer London. Coming so soon after April’s outbreak of violence, and filled with details that make clear the extent to which violence remains endemic, the report makes Feltham’s continuing failure plain for all to see. The government’s announcement that placements will be halted until improvements have been made may provide short-term relief. It will do nothing to resolve the systemic problems of youth custody in England, which have led reformers to call for youth jails to be closed down.
This is far from the only challenge awaiting the newly appointed secretary of state for justice and lord chancellor, Robert Buckland. Disarray and dysfunction in the justice system go far wider than the 42 young offender institutions (four of which hold under 18s, along with one in Wales, the rest being for 18-21s) and three secure training centres in England. The failed privatisation of probation, pressure on courts due to budget cuts, severe overcrowding and record levels of self-harm in jails all require attention. But the law states that Mr Buckland must address inspectors’ concerns about Feltham within 28 days.
Mr Clarke pointed to a 45% rise in violent incidents in six months. Three-quarters of teenagers reported that they had been physically restrained by staff. Incidents of self-harm have tripled. No useful purpose can be served by holding young people in such conditions. Ministers and youth justice experts know this.
Understanding of the damaging effects on young people of incarceration has grown rapidly in recent years, with Scotland adopting a research-based “whole system approach” focused on keeping 16- and 17-year-olds out of the criminal justice system. In England and Wales too the number of young people arrested for notifiable (more serious) offences has plummeted, from more than 300,000 a decade ago to fewer than 66,000 in 2017-18. In May this year there were 830 under-18s in custody (all but 33 of them boys); a decade ago the figure was 2,541.
But this is no cause for complacency or, worse, excuses for failure with regard to those who remain locked up. Half of the children in custody are black or minority ethnic (compared with a quarter of inmates in adult prisons): a disgracefully high rate given BAME representation in the population as a whole. Almost all children in custody have experienced adverse life events such as bereavement, poverty, addiction or being taken into care.
The use of pain-inducing restraint and solitary confinement on children should, as MPs have argued, be made illegal. Much more must be done to tackle sexual abuse, of which there were 1,070 alleged instances between 2009 and 2017. But the heart of the problem is that youth jails are brutalising places. The scandal of mistreatment at Medway youth training centre in 2016 shows that these supposedly more modern alternatives are not the answer, while the government’s rebrand of Medway as a “secure school” under an academy trust with no experience of youth custody appears alarmingly naive.
If young people are to be supported to find a way of making a contribution to society, as well as being punished, they would be much better off under the care of local authorities (many of whom will know them already) in secure children homes. More serious offenders move on to adult prisons in any case. Not all youth jails have Feltham’s history of violence. But that doesn’t make them the right place for a child.
• This article was amended on 26 July 2019 to clarify that not all of the 42 young offender institutions are for under-18s, as an earlier version suggested. Four hold under 18s, and the rest are for 18-21s.
