This study presents the findings from the UK’s (England and Wales) first empirical in-depth exploration of the impact that COVID-19 had on children in detention.
Details
To date, most research in this area has been undertaken in the adult, male prison population. Whilst some experiences may be similar, the circumstances and environment of incarcerated children call for unique consideration against the backdrop of, firstly, custody and, secondly, custody during the coronavirus pandemic.
The researchers, Hannah Smithson and Deborah Jump (Manchester Metropolitan University), begin by highlighting that, despite general calls to reduce the prison population during the pandemic in tandem with international organisations' guidance on protecting the rights of incarcerated children, no children in England and Wales were released under the government’s end of custody temporary release scheme.
The article sets out its intentions ‘to document the experiences of youth justice professionals and children in custody during the pandemic and to illustrate how these experiences urgently shape the need for a fundamental ideological shift in the purpose of custody for children’.
Figures highlighted throughout the article put into perspective how much money is spent sending and keeping children in custody instead of investing in alternatives that could keep them out of it. This is despite extensive research which illustrates how addressing the underlying causes of offending behaviour reduces the chances of offending.
The authors interviewed staff and children at a Youth Offending Institute and Secure Children’s Home in the Greater Manchester area between 2021 and 2022 and discovered restrictive measures that included keeping children in their cells for 23 hours a day (reaching the internationally recognised definition of solitary confinement per the Mandela Rules), choosing between having a shower and time in the exercise yard, and social visits, education and mental health support completely halted: all activities of a custodial regime which are acknowledged to support rehabilitation. It is no wonder that one of the child respondents described feeling ‘like a dog in a kennel’. Ironically, measures thought to protect children from the spread of the disease harmed them in other ways.
In terms of lessons learned, the authors build on responses from staff and children about how the youth custodial estate can be transformed in a post-pandemic world. From simple, practical measures such as having showers in every cell and windows that opened, to the grand, widescale theoretical reconsiderations of the ideologies underpinning child incarceration.
Commentary
The findings are of no surprise to those working in the sector and serve as a staunch reminder of how failed incarcerated children have been throughout the pandemic and in its aftermath.
The pandemic showed us that things can and should be done differently for better outcomes. Hopefully, research such as this sets the wheels in motion for that when it comes to child incarceration.
Written by Kitan Ososami, third-six pupil, One Pump Court