The Court of Appeal rejected a bid by the Home Office to overturn a previous ruling that child prisoners should be entitled to challenge decisions made by prison governors.
The judgment was made in the case of "SP", a 17-year-old girl with severe mental health problems and a history of self-harm, who was on suicide watch.
She was moved from a secure children's home to an adult women's prison on her 17th birthday and was transferred to solitary confinement for three weeks without the opportunity to challenge the decision.
Chris Callender, the head of the legal team at the Howard League for Penal Reform, which acted for the girl, said the judgment was significant because the courts had "finally recognised" that children in prison should be treated differently to adults.
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