CYP Now - Young prisoners ‘failed for a decade' over rehabilitation and reoffending, Charlie Taylor warns

The prison service has failed for more than a decade to deal effectively with young adult prisoners, HM chief inspector of prisons has warned.

Charlie Taylor: 'If action is not taken, outcomes will remain poor for the next decade'. Image: YJB

In a damning new thematic report Charlie Taylor states that outcomes would remain poor for young adults aged under 25 unless HM Prison and Probation Service (HMPPS) urgently addressed its “haphazard” approach to more than 15,000 young adult prisoners.

In his report, Taylor warns that the current approach taken by HMPPS to place most young prisoners in adult prisons with much older inmates misses opportunities to help under-25s rehabilitate and puts society at risk of repeat reoffending.

The prison service has “little understanding of the way young men in their early 20s mature”, the report states, raising particular concern over the treatment of young black men in adult prisons.

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