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Conditions at YOI getting worse, report warns

2 mins read Youth Justice
The “inhumane treatment” of boys at Cookham Wood Young Offender Institution (YOI) has “got worse” over the last year, the setting’s independent monitoring board (IMB) has warned.
Campaigners have renewed calls for Cookham Wood to be closed. Picture: Howard League for Penal Reform/X
Campaigners have renewed calls for Cookham Wood to be closed. Picture: Howard League for Penal Reform/X

A report into conditions at the Kent YOI, which houses boys as young as 15, raises concerns over restrictions placed on children in the facility which have “heightened volatility at Cookham Wood”.

It reveals high numbers of boys on “keep apart” notices, which the IMB states “generates fearfulness and an expectation of violence amongst the boys”.

The IMB also warns that boys are still being kept in their cells for up to 22 hours a day – a concern raised in its previous 2021/22 report on the facility.

Meanwhile, frequent and last-minute changes to daily timetable due to a lack of available staff is described as a “source of constant frustration for the boys”.

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