Letters to the Editor: Ministers must accelerate prison closures

The justice committee’s report is a fine example of parliamentarians standing up for the rights of vulnerable children (MPs “shocked and appalled” by treatment of children at STC, cypnow.co.uk, 29 March 2021).

Committee members are absolutely justified in being outraged about the treatment of children in Rainsbrook secure training centre and demanding change.

Many more ought to share their shock and horror at the appalling conditions children have been subjected to. Clearly there are continuing questions about those who have independent roles in child prisons, and the arrangements necessary to prevent them becoming institutionalised and immune to children’s suffering.

As the report shows, it was only when inspectors stepped through the prison door that intolerable practices were named and challenged.

The committee notes that MTC has under-performed ever since it was awarded the contract to run this child prison in 2016. If only the strong warnings of Article 39, the Howard League for Penal Reform and INQUEST had been listened to when we wrote to the Youth Justice Board, then in charge of contracting, at the end of 2015.

At some point the cycle must end of independent charities issuing warnings to government, these warnings being ignored, then children suffering as predicted. Ministers must get into the habit of doing what’s right for children at the start, not when faced with devastating evidence. More broadly, the committee’s report should accelerate the government’s 2016 commitment to close child prisons and for that we need the urgent publication of a closure programme.

Carolyne Willow, director, Article 39