Fury over placement of three girls at all-male YOI
Joe Lepper
Wednesday, March 23, 2022
Children’s rights campaigners have criticised the “unacceptable” placement of three teenage girls in an all-male young offender institution (YOI) for several months.
The girls had been held at Rainsbrook secure training centre but following its closure they were moved to the all-boys Wetherby YOI in West Yorkshire in June last year.
An HM Inspectorate of Prisons report has detailed how some secure children’s homes had refused to accept girls with complex needs and a history of violence, which prompted the Youth Custody Service to “develop additional capacity at Wetherby” to accommodate them.
Inspectors said the YOI had “embraced this challenge and had worked hard to prove a more suitable environment for girls”. But they also criticised “the failure nationally to plan effectively for the small number of girls held in custody” which meant Wetherby had accommodated them “at short notice”.
In addition, inspectors found that girls at the YOI had self-harmed 14 times within a six-month period, “which, given their low numbers in the establishment, meant they were much more likely to self-harm than boys”.
They were also allowed out of their cells for less time than boys and had been forcibly restrained 12 times, including seven times against one of the girls.
Among those to condemn placing the girls in an all-male prison is the All Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) for Women in the Penal System, which is managed by campaign group the Howard League for Penal Reform.
“It has been known for many years that girls should not be in prison, so it is unacceptable that three have been placed in Wetherby because of failure at a national level to plan effectively,” said the APPG’s co-chairs, MPs Jackie Doyle-Price and Debbie Abrahams.
“Ministers must look again at this situation and come up with a sustainable long-term solution that ensures girls get the care and support they need.”
When inspectors visited Wetherby prison in December, there were about 140 boys - and three girls, who had been moved to the prison at short notice following the closure of places elsewhere.
— APPG on Women in the Penal System (@APPGWomenInPS) March 16, 2022
Girls should not be in prison. A statement from the APPG: https://t.co/yTZAk0zaeF
Meanwhile, Laura Janes, chair of justice charity Legal Action Group said on Twitter: “Imagine being just one of three girls in a boys’ prison”.
Imagine being just one of three girls in a boys' prison.@HMIPrisonsnews inspection found the girls had less time out of their cell than boys and the girls were "much more likely to self-harm than boys"
— Dr LauraJanes (@LauraJanes_UK) March 16, 2022
Important statement from @APPGWomenInPS https://t.co/QfOb8gfYU9 pic.twitter.com/N5WmOsKyZI
At the time of the inspection the girls were being held at Wetherby’s Napier Unit. This was while refurbishment was taking place at the YOI’s therapeutic Keppel Unit, which inspectors criticised for “a disappointing fall in standards”.
All children at Rainsbrook were removed last summer after inspectors found widespread failures to keep children and staff safe.
In December 2021 the government terminated the contract of MTC, the private provider responsible for running the facility.
