Feltham becomes first YOI under new prison improvement plan
Nina Jacobs
Friday, February 28, 2020
A troubled young offender institution (YOI) has been singled out to receive intensive support as part of a new government prison improvement programme.
Feltham A, which houses 15- to 18-year-olds, will join five adult prisons including HMP Wormwood Scrubs and Bedford, in the support plan aimed at targeting “challenging” secure settings.
Prisons minister Lucy Frazer said the Prison Performance Support Programme (PPSP) would replace special measure status – issued by HM Prison and Probation Service for settings needing additional specialist support to improve standards – and offered a “significant package” of tailored support.
The programme, which builds on lessons learned from the government’s 10 Prisons Project, would deliver additional staff, enhanced standards training and “tough airport-style” security to bring about stability, she said.
“We know that some prisons face deep-rooted issues that cannot be fixed overnight, which is why this programme will be vital to support and improve them.
“This co-ordinated, intensive support represents a step up in our response to the long-term challenges affecting certain jails,” she said.
The move comes just months after a ban on the detention of new child prisoners at Feltham A was lifted in October.
The temporary restriction on placements was introduced by Peter Clarke, the chief inspector of prisons, after an intelligence-led inspection in July found an escalation in violence and self-harm.
Frazer said additional funding provided to all six sites would improve living and working conditions with the introduction of a standards coaching team to develop staff confidence and skills.
The programme will use data to focus on reducing violence and self-harm and will be overseen by an operations room team at the prison service’s headquarters that would work closely with staff on the ground, she added.
There is expected to be continued analysis of other prisons across the secure estate with support provided under the programme adapted accordingly.
The government said depending on findings determined by data and operational judgment, secure settings would move in and out of the programme according to “greatest need”.
Carolyne Willow, director of children's rights charity Article 39, said: "Of course anything that tries to make children immediately safer in Feltham is to be welcomed. But this is a deeply depressing announcement, which shows that the Ministry of Justice has decided to stay on the hamster-wheel of failure.
"The prison service has been announcing for decades that Feltham will, at some future unspecified date, become fit for children. It never has. That a separate statement wasn’t even released to explain how children will be protected in Feltham, and the plans are apparently the same for Feltham and five adult jails, shows yet again the systemic failure to treat children as children.
"Last year, the UK Government pledged to the United Nations that young offender institutions would close. It’s a closure programme we need, not intensive support that keeps children imprisoned”.
The government has already pledged £2.75bn to overhaul the prison estate including £100m to improve prison security and £156m to tackle maintenance issues to create safer living conditions.
A HM Inspectorate of Prisons report, published last year following a visit in January, found Feltham YOI had seen significant year-on-year rises in the level of violence against children and staff.
More recently, another report published by the inspectorate in February revealed more than four in 10 young people in custody say they have suffered victimisation by prison staff.
More than half (53 per cent) of children at Feltham YOI reported experiencing such incidents including sexual assaults, physical abuse and threats.
A report published in 2017 highlights the importance of youth work in reducing violence in YOIs. Youth work organisation Kinetic Youth already work with young people in Feltham YOI to reduce violence in the facility which had showed "effective results", the report states.
