The abuse scandal at Medway Secure Training Centre has brought standards in youth custody into sharp focus. The case raised questions over whether youth justice professionals have the right skills to deal with the needs of young people in custody today.
On the one hand, youth custody is a success story of the past decade - the development of effective alternatives to incarceration for dealing with offending has seen the number of children and young people in the secure estate fall by more than 70 per cent since 2008.
However, children who remain in child prisons - around 900 at the last count - tend to have the most entrenched behaviour problems - seven in 10 are there for violent crimes and one in 10 have children of their own. This in turn creates major challenges for the professionals caring for these troubled young people.
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