We have around 2,500 under-18s in young offenders' institutions. Our record when it comes to looking after them is also appalling: 16 children have died in prison in the past eight years; 200 were injured in the past eight months resulting from the use of physical restraint in prisons.
At Lancaster Farms - generally regarded as one of the better young offenders' institutions - staff complain that they have to intervene in 10 to 12 violent incidents a day. Around 90 per cent of young people in prison have a recognisable mental disorder, while a tenth suffer from severe psychotic illness. Dawson singles out the Youth Justice Board for particularly scathing criticism: "It is the body that placed 3,337 children who were officially recognised as vulnerable in Prison Service custody in 2003/04, even though 24 per cent of children in custody report being assaulted and one third report feeling unsafe."
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