Campaigners have demanded that an independent review of the youth secure estate takes place after the fifth apparent suicide of a teenager in custody in five weeks.
Seventeen-year-old Ryan Clark was found hanging in his cell at Wetherby young offenders' institution (YOI) in Yorkshire on 18 April. The five suicides of young offenders already this year is as high as in any entire year since 2005.
Clark's death follows the suicides of Mahry Rosser, 19, at New Hall YOI on 17 April; Nicholas Saunders, 18, at Stoke Heath YOI on 2 April; Trevor Llambias, 18, at Bedford Prison on 28 March; and Nicholas Wheller, 19, at Aylesbury YOI, also in March.
Clark is the first young person under the age of 18 to die in custody since 15-year-old Liam McManus died on 29 November 2007 at Lancaster Farms YOI.
Calls for review
The deaths have heightened the focus on a series of concerns within the youth secure estate in recent months, with campaigners making fresh calls for a review of how the current system is designed and operated.
Helen Shaw, co-director at the charity Inquest, said the youth secure estate appears "destabilised". "There needs to be an independent review to look at the use of the secure estate," she said.
"One of the things we know from previous deaths is that many of the young people had needs that were far too complex to be met in the secure estate."
In January this year, an investigation by CYP Now revealed that nearly one in three prison officers working with vulnerable young offenders in custody had not completed training on safeguarding and assessing vulnerability.
In addition, falling custody levels have led to a process of decommissioning that has been linked to serious incidents in the secure estate.
There are also lingering concerns over a lack of social workers in YOIs due to a dispute over funding for the roles, which were created in 2005.
New strategy
The effectiveness of the assessment tool Asset - which is used to gauge a young person's vulnerability prior to sentencing - is also currently being examined as part of a review being carried out by the Youth Justice Board (YJB).
It is understood that the YJB is set to publish a new secure estate strategy in the coming weeks - a document that could influence legislation emerging from the government's green paper on rehabilitation, which is currently out for consultation.
Tim Bateman, criminologist at the University of Bedfordshire, said a window of opportunity currently exists to improve the structure of the secure estate.
He said that suicides represent "the top end of a continuum of harm" that can include self-harm, suicide attempts and attacks from other offenders and that a move away from large YOIs in favour of smaller establishments with higher staff-to-inmate ratios would improve the situation.
"Before legislation is settled on, there is still quite a lot to play for," he said. "If it is possible to make the case that a different configuration could have an impact on reducing reoffending and increasing safeguarding for children I think there is a real chance the government might listen.
"But, politically, the YJB would have to attach it to reoffending, not just rely on the benefits of improving safety for children.
"From central government's perspective, reducing reoffending, and savings from doing that, is what is influential at the current time."
Another idea that has been mooted is the creation of a national agency to manage the juvenile secure estate, taking YOIs out of the control of the Prison Service.
Improved training
Rod Morgan, former chair of the YJB, backs the idea. He also believes that government plans to devolve the cost of custody to local authorities could lead to further falls in custody that would free-up resources, allowing for improved training for those working with young people in custody.
"Custody levels could come down considerably further and what one hopes is that the government is going to introduce various initiatives that will make that likely," he said.
"If you could get the population down further, hopefully it would allow for much more intensive training of prison staff."
He added that due to the current economic situation, the government is likely to favour maintaining the "status quo" with regard to the physical make-up of the estate.
The YJB commissions beds for 14-to 17-year-olds in YOIs and places them in establishments, which are run by the Prison Service and the private sector.
DEATHS OF TEENAGERS IN CUSTODY THIS YEAR
Nicholas Wheller, 19 - Aylesbury YOI. Wheller was found hanging in his cell on 9 March, but died on 16 March
Trevor Llambias, 18 - Bedford Prison on 28 March. Llambias was found hanging in his cell on the day of his trial for grievous bodily harm
Nicholas Saunders, 18 - Stoke Heath YOI on 2 April. He was found hanging in his cell at the YOI in Shropshire
Mahry Rosser, 19 - New Hall YOI on 17 April. Rosser, who was found hanging in her cell, was serving three years in New Hall prison in Wakefield, West Yorkshire, for robbery
Ryan Clark, 17 - Wetherby YOI near Leeds. Clark was on remand when he was found hanging in his cell on 18 April
