Labour MP Hilton Dawson said in a debate last week that in the board's consultation on the future of the secure estate for juveniles, it had "selectively" quoted a report by the Children's Rights Alliance by claiming it had made major improvements in the prison service but not mentioning that a number of institutions had violated children's rights.
"Frankly, I am critical of the Youth Justice Board," said Dawson. "It is the body that placed 3,337 children who were recognised as vulnerable in Prison Service custody in 2003/04."
Dawson also suggested that young offenders should receive a "much longer period of intervention" than they do in prison by placing them in long-term care in local authority secure children's homes, which have better staffing ratios.
However, he said it was a "huge problem" that 71 places in these homes had been lost since 2000, when the Youth Justice Board took over responsibility for commissioning places.
"That is especially lamentable when we consider the most shameful disgrace of all ... that in the past eight years 16 children have died in prison."
He also criticised the use of restraint on "thousands" of occasions in secure training centres.
The Youth Justice Board will buy 235 beds in local authority secure homes in 2004/05, down 67 from the previous year, and is instead buying 80 beds in the new secure training centre in Milton Keynes that opened in August 2004.
A spokeswoman said the board was confident that secure training centres provided a "comparable level of care for young people" as local authority secure children's homes.
The Youth Justice Board's consultation on the strategy for the secure estate for juveniles runs until 28 February.
www.youth-justice.board.gov.uk/ YouthJusticeBoard/Custody/StrategyForSecureEstate/
