Parliament's Home Affairs Committee accused the Government of neglecting offenders aged 18 to 21 in Rehabilitation of Offenders, a report it published in January.
It called for the Government to invest the same amount in young adults as it has in juveniles, and to develop an equivalent range of interventions.
But in its response, issued last week, the Government said it did not accept the committee's view that young adults are not a priority. It said it has made significant investments in the past four years and that conditions are improving.
Finola Farrant, a research project manager at The Howard League for Penal Reform, said she had not seen many signs of improvements in recent visits to young offender institutions. "The feeling is still that the regime for young offenders is generally worse than that for juveniles and adults," she said.
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