Improvement plan not enough to turn around Oakhill STC

This is a remarkable recommendation on its own terms: if public funds are to be handed to multinationals for the care and deprivation of liberty of children who have (or are alleged to have) broken the law, the very least they can be expected to do is run law-abiding institutions. Coming seventeen years after a 15 year-old child, Gareth Myatt, was restrained to the point of unconsciousness, and then died, in another G4S-run secure training centre, it is beyond intolerable. 

A former child in care, Gareth stood less than five feet tall and weighed just six-and-a-half stone. Before he collapsed, he told the three G4S officers forcibly holding him down that he couldn’t breathe; he was told if you can speak, you can breathe. A document was produced at Gareth’s inquest showing that G4S restraint trainers had given themselves nicknames such as Breaker, Mauler, Crusher and Clubber.