HM Inspectorate of Prisons released its new ‘Children in Custody’ report, covering 12-18-year-olds’ experiences in secure training centres (STCs) and young offender institutions (YOIs) in England & Wales for 2025-26.
The report continues to highlight that the youth estate suffers from major issues, including children being ‘locked behind…doors for much too long’, being subject to ‘much too high’ levels of violence, and the provision of education and support being ‘awful’, among others.
Details
Population declined in both STCs, and YOIs by ~14% overall, to its lowest level.
- However, the number of children held on remand stagnated – this is potentially because ‘children were too often held in custody while awaiting trial or sentencing’ unnecessarily. 41% of responding children were on remand without being convicted or were awaiting sentencing.
Children’s experiences
- While the proportion of children feeling unsafe now (14%) or ever having felt unsafe (39%) showed a slight decrease, the rates remain ‘too high’. Children with a disability particularly ‘had very poor perceptions of safety’.
- At Oakhill STC, safety concerns were so heightened that an Urgent Notification was sent to the Secretary of State for Justice.
- All establishments experienced significant amounts of violent incidents.
- Children also reported that ‘staff did not always recognise or acknowledge their concerns… and did not always intervene quickly enough during fights or assaults’.
- 56% of children reported having been separated from their peers as a punishment. At Oakhill, even though the maximum separation time allowed under their rules is three hours, children had sometimes been separated for days. More information on separation is available here.
- Only 26% of children said they would ‘report being bullied or victimised’ by other young people, and 49% would report it if ‘they were bullied or victimised by staff’. This raises serious underreporting concerns.
- Only 51% of children reported feeling cared for by most staff.
- One in three children still stated they have no staff member to turn to for help if they have a problem, notwithstanding that due to the declining population, staff-to-child ratios improved in all settings.
- Children reporting that they were learning something that will help them on release was at 57% overall. 16% of children reported that they were not participating in any purposeful activity.
- Worryingly, children were often ‘allocated to classes because of safety reasons rather than for their educational needs’. More information on education is available here.
- Only 43% of children reported that ‘someone was helping them to prepare for leaving the establishment’.
- To this end, the Youth Custody Service piloted a new approach to release on temporary licence (ROTL), which supports resettlement and community reintegration.
Reactions
The Youth Justice Board commented that there should be a ‘time-bound transition towards smaller, child-centred provision’ instead of the current system.
Meanwhile, a Ministry of Justice spokesperson stated that they are ‘developing the Youth Custody Transformation Plan to make the youth estate safer’.
Commentary
Significant concerns persist in the secure estate – notwithstanding the declining population – that mar the system’s impact and desirability in terms of safety, education, and provision of care for children, among others.
Practitioners should keep the above findings in mind when considering the appropriateness of children being remanded in custody. As the report highlights, ‘in too many cases we found that children were remanded to custody because there was no credible alternative presented at court’.
Once a custodial sentence is imposed, possibilities for early release, such as ROTL, should also not be forgotten.