Cookham Wood YOI to close

The Kent YOI will be repurposed as an adult prison in a bid to solve a custody capacity crisis, the Ministry of Justice has announced.

Boys currently placed in the YOI will be transferred across the youth custody estate “on a case-by-case basis” ministers have said, with some expected to be moved to the new secure school planned to open on a neighbouring site – previously that of Medway Secure Training Centre (STC) next month.

Some 77 boys were held at Cookham Wood in April last year.

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The setting has long been criticised by the sector, with a report by the YOI’s independent monitoring board, published in February, describing the treatment of children at the facility as “inhumane” and “getting worse”.

In April last year, Cookham Wood was issued an Urgent Notification to improve by His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Prisons over concerns around the standard of care being provided to children with complex needs. Inspectors found that some children were kept in solitary confinement for 100 days and were forced to stay in cells for as many as 23.5 hours per day.

The Youth Custody Service has been monitoring the progress made against an action plan which was published last May.

It finds that while “significant improvements [have been] delivered in the quality of education and safety”, “further improvements needed cannot be delivered at the scale required in an acceptable time frame”.

Announcing the closure, prisons and youth justice minister Edward Argar highlighted a 70% drop in the number of children in custody over the last decade.

“We are transforming the provision of custody for young offenders and over the last decade we have seen a significant fall in young people entering custody.

“Those housed within our youth estate often have very complex needs and have committed violent crime, and Cookham Wood is no longer serving their needs.

“This is why we are announcing plans to move them to sites to offer better support and help turn their backs on a life of crime as well as increase capacity within our adult male estate,” he said.

The MOJ added that the closure is part of a government plan to “transform the provision of custody for young offenders”.

“This includes a series of reforms to improve the youth estate, including recruiting a specialist youth justice workforce and working in close partnership with health and education providers to maximise our work to reduce reoffending,” it states.

Children's Commissioner for England Dame Rachel de Souza has “welcomed” the closure.

She said: “The setting has failed on every single of the four test areas, including safety, on every inspection going back to 2019, so robust action is welcome but overdue. 

“During my last visit there, children told my team that the setting was categorically not safe.  

“They spoke about their experiences of violence, including stabbings, and their lack of confidence they could be kept safe by those in charge. One said: ‘Everybody is carrying weapons.’

“For the children currently living in Cookham Wood there may be a complicated transition in the short-term but I will be making it a priority for my office to ensure that these young people end up in far better accommodation in a more appropriate, supportive setting.”

The MOJ has previously pledged to close all YOIs.

The closure of Cookham Wood comes weeks after a report into conditions at Wetherby YOI, in north Yorkshire, found a girl had been stripped-searched twice by male officers.

De Souza added: “The closure of Cookham Wood is a welcome step in achieving the Ministry of Justice’s commitment to close all young offender institutions.

“Progress to achieve this has been too slow and this has left too many children in settings that are not safe and not appropriate.”