Cookham Wood YOI: Inspectors raise concerns over continued violence
Joe Lepper
Wednesday, June 8, 2022
Inspectors have warned that levels of violence “remain high” at Cookham Wood young offender institution (YOI) in Kent, despite progress being made to reduce the number of incidents over the last year.
Following their visit in April this year HM Inspectorate of prisons found the number of violent incidents had been cut by a fifth since their last inspection in August 2021.
However, levels of violence are “still higher than in similar facilities”, warn inspectors.
In the six months before their visit this year inspectors found there had been 160 violent incidents, 96 among children and 64 on staff.
Of these 13 incidents were recorded as “serious”, including one where “many members of staff” required hospital treatment.
Staff shortages and low morale among staff, especially following the recent serious violent incident where staff were injured, are among factors in inspectors’ ongoing concerns about violence at Cookham Wood.
“Inspectors found no evidence of a credible violence reduction strategy and violence data was not being used effectively,” the report states.
A failure to analyse data following incidents meant the YOI’s management “did not, therefore, have a clear understanding of the causes of violence”, it warns.
Other concerns raised include a failure of staff to challenge low-level behaviour problems and issues such as graffiti and unkempt cells.
The blocking of observation panels in cells is also not being challenged.
A reward system to praise positive behaviour is described by the inspectorate as “ineffective”, with only a fifth of children describing it as fair.
“There was little to reward children on the highest level and so there was motivation to behave well,” said inspectors about this system.
Cookham Wood has appointed a new head of safety and two safety analysts following last year’s critical inspection report, which found “high levels of violence, lack of purposeful activity, and poor behaviour going unchallenged by staff”.
“But it was disappointing that there was still no plan to reduce violence,” say inspectors following their latest visit.
“This would make it difficult to sustain reductions in violence and minimise the debilitating impact that the high level of conflict had on staff morale and time out of cell.”
A new regime to give children more time out of cells and including 24 hours of education each week was implemented weeks before inspectors visited in April.
But “this had not yet been delivered consistently and time out of cell needed overall improvement”, inspectors add.
“There had been progress in widening the education provision and an emphasis on the importance of learning had improved attendance. However, problems with allocation, punctuality and some weakness in teaching remained.”
Despite concerns raised inspectors found that resettlement work had “improved significantly” and there is “effective” partnerships in place to support children.
“Ultimately, success will depend on leaders’ ability to create a culture where staff expect consistently high standards and support children to achieve them,” said chief inspector of prisons Charlie Taylor on Cookham Wood’s potential for further improvement.