The 2020 report by HMI Prisons found that “children were subject to widespread solitary confinement, spending more than 22 hours a day locked in their cells with no meaningful human contact or oversight”.
A review of progress on the failings, carried out by chief inspector of prisons Charlie Taylor, finds that 479 children have been separated from their peers in YOIs in 2023/24 in more than 1,000 separate incidents.
Currently, fewer than 400 children are housed in the youth custody system.
Of those who were subject to solitary confinement, 179 instances were between 21 days and 100 days long, while 21 children were separated from their peers for more than 100 days.
Incidents of solitary confinement are due to “high levels of violence and disorder”, the report states.
It adds: “Many children continued to be subject to solitary confinement and unable to access the basics, including exercise. Leaders were unable to provide most separated children with adequate access to education and other interventions, which in some cases were limited to just a few minutes a day. In the worst cases, on some days, children did not leave their cell.”
More than three-quarters of young people at Cookham Wood YOI said they had been separated from their peers, compared with 50% at Feltham A.
At Werrington YOI 70% of young people reported being separated compared with 63% and 61% at Parc and Wetherby respectively.
Taylor said: “It is simply not acceptable that they are separated in the conditions we describe in this report, with the potential for long-term detrimental effects on their health, behaviour and learning.”
Responding to the review, children’s rights campaigners have called for “meaningful action” to be taken by the government to reduce levels of segregation in the youth custody estate.
Andrea Coomber, chief executive of the Howard League for Penal Reform, said: “All children need exercise, education and contact with other people if they are to grow, progress and live healthily as adults. But children in prison are being failed, time and time again. “Several years after this scandal was uncovered, it is unconscionable that children are still being locked up for hours on end and being denied the care and support they need. Rather than supporting children to thrive, the system is instead inflicting significant harm on them. This is yet further evidence that prison is no place for a child. “We hope that the new government will address this legacy of failure and take meaningful steps to ensure that children are kept safe and helped to succeed in more appropriate settings.”
Carolyne Willow, director of Article 39 added: “This report should embarrass the government into action.
“The scale and longevity of serious child protection failure suggests we do not know how to look after children in our country, or that we do not care enough about children to put things right. Neither of these propositions should be palatable to government ministers inheriting this chaos.”
Recommendations put forward in the 2020 report which have not been met include offering children in segregation a routine equal to that accessed by non-segregated children and access to at least one hour’s fresh air per day for segregated children.
A separate report by Ofsted and HMI Prisons raises concerns about the “bleak picture of steadily declining educational opportunities” for children in YOIs.
The report looks at inspections of education provision in YOIs over the last decade and finds “poor relationships between education providers and YOI leaders, poor-quality resources and infrastructure, severe staff shortages and low levels of qualifications and training among staff”.
“These factors result in children receiving a poor education that fails to meet their needs,” it adds.
Children in YOIs have fewer hours of lessons that their peers and lower levels of attendance due to “reasons beyond their control”.
Lack of staff training leaves children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) unsupported, the report adds.
It also highlights “severe” staff shortages and “restrictive regimes” as “chief among reasons for the poor quality of education”.
Martyn Oliver, Ofsted’s chief inspector of education, said: “These children need to receive a substantial, high-quality education that enables them to catch up on their missed schooling, and thus be better prepared for the future. It is our duty to ensure that they do.
“While we acknowledge the challenges that leaders and managers must navigate in these establishments, these children deserve to access a full education through a purposeful and productive day taught by experienced and able teachers. Anything less would be an injustice.”
The Ministry of Justice announced in March that Cookham Wood will close and be repurposed as an adult prison.
