Youth custody in England and Wales is in crisis and young offender institutions (YOIs) and secure training centres (STCs) should be "abolished", with more funding pumped into expanding secure children's homes (SCHs), according to the National Association for Youth Justice (NAYJ).
To support its claims, the association commissioned youth justice expert Tim Bateman of the University of Bedfordshire to review the custodial system, the findings of which are in The State of Youth Custody report published this week.
Failures of the system
The report highlights that while the number of young people in custody has fallen sharply over the past eight years - from 3,006 under-18s in 2008 to just under 900 today - those who end up in the secure estate are generally held in settings with a custodial, rather than care, ethos. In May 2016, 73 per cent of under-18s were detained in YOIs compared with around one in 10 in a SCH.
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