Youth custody at breaking point

In an alert sent to youth justice practitioners last week, the Youth Justice Board warned that 3,300 young offenders were now in custody, taking the secure estate to full capacity, CYP Now can reveal.

The YJB said young people were being held in police cells and other "potentially unsafe and unsuitable" accommodation and urged youth offending team managers to consider the situation when preparing for court.

In a bid to ease the crisis, the YJB asked the Prison Service to move young offenders aged 18 out of juvenile jails and into young adult prisons "as a matter of urgency".

A spokeswoman for the YJB said young people had been held in police cells for "a couple of nights" because of overcrowding and the lingering effects of the prison officers' strike (CYP Now, 5-11 September). "It was a one-off because of the strike," she said. "We haven't got young people in police cells any more. The situation has eased with 18-year-olds moved into adult establishments."

She added plans to convert Cookham Wood women's prison to a young offender institution for males later on in the year would ease overcrowding. The Kent prison will hold up to 156 young offenders aged between 15 and 17.

But Juliet Lyon, director of the Prison Reform Trust, said the situation was unacceptable. "Unless the government takes immediate steps, not only will almost all these young people reoffend, but it will be impossible to hold them safely."

- Additional reporting by Tristan Donovan.