Charlie Taylor, Chief Inspector of Prisons
Youth Justice in England and Wales

Jan 2024

The Chief Inspector of Prisons – Charlie Taylor
SchoolsHeadteacher
Review of Youth Justice
Youth Justice Board

Chief Inspector of Prisons22016 Review of the Youth Justice System- Courts- Community- Custody- Care- Report - Review of the Youth Justice System (publishing.service.gov.uk)

Youth custody population – England and Wales

Youth custody data - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

4Image source: Tony Blair urged'radical' measures to cutasylum, archive papers reveal BBC News5

Youth custody population by offence group – England and Wales

600
500
400
300
200
100

Breach of statutory order-Domestic burglary

Drugs

Robbery

Sexual offences

Violence against the person

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Jul-23Apr-23Jan-23Oct-22

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Jan-22Oct-21

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Apr-20Jan-20

Oct-19Jul-19Apr-19Jan-19Oct-18

Jul-18Apr-18Jan-18Oct-17

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Apr-150OtherProven reoffending rate for juvenile offenders was 32.5% (Oct - Dec 2021 cohort); this iscompared to adult offenders whose rate is 25.1% (MoJ stats).

Youth custody data - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
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Secure schools“Oasis Restore is at the forefront of a long-awaited
revolution in youth justice. Our school offers
therapeutic, integrated, and bespoke support forchildren, along with pathways for successfultransition that equips them to contribute to a safercommunity.”
Steve Chalke, Oasis Founder

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HMIP – What we do• The UK is a party to the Optional Protocol to the United Nations Convention Against
Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (OPCAT).
• HMIP provide independent scrutiny of the conditions for and treatment of prisoners andother detainees and report on our findings.
• We inspect prisons, Young Offender Institutions (YOIs), Secure Training Centres (STCs),
Immigration Removal Centres (IRCs), court custody suites and military detention.
• Inspections are carried out against published inspection criteria known as Expectations.
The Inspectorate sets its own inspection criteria to ensure transparency andindependence.
• Expectations for adult male and female prisons and YOIs are brigaded under the four
tests of a ‘healthy establishment’.

11Types of prison in England and Wales
Types of prison

Categories

adult males

A long term high secure estate

women

B reception and training prisons
Cresettlement and training prisons
Dopen prisonschildren and young people

12Children in custody
Young offender institutions (5 x YOIs: Cookham Wood, Feltham, Parc,Werrington, Wetherby)- Holds children between the ages of 15-18.
- Inspected annually.
Secure training centres (3 x STCs: Medway, Oakhill, Rainsbrook)- Hold young offenders between the ages of 12-18.
- Inspected annually.
- Ofsted lead these inspections, accompanied by HMI Prisons inspectors.
Secure children’s homes- Run by local authorities or other providers.
- Hold children between the ages of 10-17.
- Can also house those detained for welfare reasons.
- HMI Prisons has no remit to inspect SCHs.

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MoJ and HMPPS• Ministry of Justice (MoJ) is the government department responsible for courts,
prisons, probation and attendance centres.
• His Majesty’s Prison and Probation Service (HMPPS) is an agency of MoJ and madeup of HM Prison Service, Probation Service, Youth Custody Service and aheadquarters.
Responsible for:o running prison and probation services
o rehabilitation services for people in our care leaving prisono making sure support is available to stop people reoffendingo contract managing private sector prisons and services such as:o the prisoner escort serviceo electronic tagging

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What is custody for children like in the UK?

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Image source: One in five young prisoners are Muslim,
report reveals | Prisons and probation | The Guardian24

Image source: Coronavirus: Violence fears over longer lockdowns
25in prisons - BBC NewsHow do we inspect children & young people in custody?
-Week 1
- Includes, but not limited to:- Take an initial view of the environment and meet the governor/manager of theestablishment

SafetyCare-

Detainee survey- Survey of a representative proportion of the detainee population – key source ofevidence, gathering perceptions.
- Participants chosen at random across all wings/units of the establishment.
- Confidential and anonymous.

-Staff survey- Online staff survey – open for 7 days.

-Week 2- Lasts five days – relevant version of Expectations used for each inspection. Five key
sources of evidence for inspection: observation, detainees, staff, relevant third parties,documentation.

Purposeful activity

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Survey – over 100 questions

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How do we inspect children & young people in custod

SafetyCare

Healthy Prison Tests
Purposeful activity

Resettlement28How do we score on our inspections?

Healthy Prison Scorespoor
not sufficiently goodreasonably good

Purposeful activity

good

Rehabilitation andrelease planning29

Which children end up in custody?– some of our survey findings
Of the children we surveyed in STCs and YOIs in 2022-23:

Children in custody 2022-23 (justiceinspectorates.gov.uk)

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Which children end up in custody?– some of our survey findings
Of the children we surveyed in STCs and YOIs in 2022-23:- Just 46% of children reported feeling cared for by staff.
o Particularly concerning due to the link between good, trusting
relationships and effective behaviour management.
- 32% of children did not have a member of staff they felt they could turn tofor help if they had a problem.
- 55% of children thought their experiences of custody made them less likely
to offend in the future.

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Key concerns in the youth estate- High levels of violence, use of weapons.
- Use of ‘keep aparts’ and poor behaviour management approaches e.g.
Cookham Wood: 90% of boys were being kept apart from other prisoners,
with nearly 600 keep apart instructions. Lack of meaningful incentives acrossYOIs.

- Limited regime and levels of purposeful activity, made worse by use of ‘keepaparts’.
- PAVA incapacitant spray.

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Key concerns in the youth estate- Despite significant resources, most sites are unable to deliver one meaningfulconversation with each child a week – as a result many children do not feelcared for.
- Many children are placed too far from home e.g. 37% of children wereplaced 50 or more miles from their home in 2022-23 (MoJ stats).
o This situation is particularly acute for girls.
- Demographics of youth custody population.
o Black children – 26%.
o 5 girls, 563 boys – includes 18+ in youth custody (MoJ stats).

33Youth custody workforce- YCS have the highest sickness absence rate at 18.2 average working days lost in
the 12 months ending Sep 2023 (compared with 11.5 for all HMPPS staff).

Cookham Wood:
Out of 148 operational posts, only 65 staff were able to be deployed.
Despite 360 staff in post, (including 44 managers) for 77 children, outcomes were still incrediblypoor.

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Cookham Wood inspection– April 2023
- Complete breakdown of behaviour management, with widespread weapon use.
- 90% of children were subjected to ‘keep aparts’ and staff were managing 583 individual
conflicts in a population of 77.
- Over a quarter of the population was completely segregated from the main population – twoboys had been subject to these conditions for 100 days.
- Acceptance of low standards e.g. uniform.
- Education, skills and work provision was inadequate.
o Allocations were based on ‘keep apart’ lists.

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Cookham Wood inspection – April 2023

Full report - HMYOI Cookham Wood Urgent Notification (justiceinspectorates.gov.uk)

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Parc – a more positive story• Positive inspection in 2022 - Reporton an unannounced inspection ofHMYOI Parc by HM Chief Inspectorof Prisons 28 March - 8 April 2022
(justiceinspectorates.gov.uk)• Strong relationships between
children and staff that resulted inlargely positive outcomes forchildren.
• Very supportive culture.
• Excellent enrichment programme.

• Good amount of time out of cell.

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Challenges- Reduce violence- Improve purposeful activity- Improve staff-prisoner relationships- Caring for girls in custody- The Secure school40Thank you for listening!
Any questions?
HM Inspectorate of Prisons@hmiprisonsnews

HMIP thematic research – links to reports- Children in custody report 2022-23- A joint thematic inspection of work with children subject to remand inyouth detention – Nov 2023
- Restricted status children and prisoners held in women’s establishments– May 2023
- Outcomes for girls in custody – Sep 2022
- Outcomes for young adults in custody – Jan 2021
- Separation of children in YOIs – Jan 2020
- All HMIP reports can be found here.

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