I was surprised by the Youth Justice Board's decision to release a statement attacking the recent industrial action by the Prison Officers' Association (CYP Now, 5-11 September).
The YJB has been decidedly silent on recent critical inspection reports about Stoke Heath and Wetherby prisons. No statements were rush-released to condemn the Prison Service for criticism of Wetherby, where "all young people were still routinely strip-searched irrespective of risk".
Stoke Heath was condemned for routinely strip-searching children without a risk assessment. It also had "poor" reception facilities and processes, "no coherent approach to vulnerable people" and "particularly poor" living conditions with young people cleaning their cells with the prison issue clothing which they then wore. Still not a squeak from the YJB, which is paying our taxpayers' money to the Prison Service to look after these children.
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