10th February 2025
In its exclusive look, The Guardian found that more than one in 10 young people in custody are being held at least 75 miles from their homes, prompting numerous concerns given that there have been years of warnings about the damaging impact this has on children.
The Guardian - Record numbers of children in England jailed many miles from their families
Details
The article highlights that over 10% of children and young people in custody are being held at least 75 miles away from home, with 15% being more than 100 miles away. This is the highest level since the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic. The impact of the distance creates difficulties for families to visit which in turn impacts both the rehabilitation and emotional well-being of the children and young people.
In summary, distance can significantly impact rehabilitation in by creating a:
- Lack of Family Support - The majority of young people behind bars are known to be extremely vulnerable and have a range of complex needs, including mental health problems and special educational needs. Without support, the individual’s motivation can decrease.
- Lack of a Continuity of Care - Rachel de Souza, the children’s commissioner, called for Keir Starmer to speed up the previous government’s plan to replace all Youth Offender Institutes with smaller secure homes around the country. She said “Children in the youth justice system need stable, positive relationships in their lives, if we are serious about offering them a real chance for rehabilitation. Placing them many miles away from their families and homes, often in facilities where standards of care and safety fall woefully short, does not create the conditions for these children to become happy and successful adults”.
The Guardian found that young offender institutions “are meant to offer at least 15 hours of education a week but a joint review by Ofsted and His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Prisons (HMIP), published in October [2024], found that standards had been steadily declining for the last decade. The bodies said they were “deeply concerned” about the conditions faced by hundreds of the most vulnerable children in Britain”.
This worrying review brings to the forefront the extreme mental cycle that young offenders will go through from sentencing to serving time and the hardships of trying to rehabilitate without proper resources and support. With this, emotional attachments can be hindered, and
Children and young people in custody may struggle with forming healthy relationships and maintaining self-esteem. With the long-term view to have these children and young people reintegrate back into society, a call for “urgent and systemic” change is long overdue.
Commentary
So what now?
With such a high proportion of children and young people being detained far from home, the findings highlight the issues with the effectiveness of the current system in supporting the rehabilitation and reintegration of children and young people in custody.
There are calls for urgent change to the youth custody system. As such, this update aims to highlight the significance of the report and its findings to practitioners in this area, so that it can be considered during practice and aid individuals in making appropriate representations on behalf of their young clients who either experience or are at risk of experiencing custody.