Self-harm and restraint incidents in youth custody hit five-year high, figures show

New Youth Justice Statistics for 2019/20, published by the Youth Justice Board (YJB) and Ministry of Justice (MoJ), show that the number of incidents of restrictive physical interventions increased by 19 per cent in the last year, to around 7,500 incidents. 

• Related news: Child prisoners at ‘real risk of psychological decline’ after lockdown

• Related news: Human rights committee criticises government actions to protect children during pandemic

More than 5,000 incidents included the use of pain inflicting techniques, records show.

Of those subject to restraint, 29 per cent of children were officially recorded as disabled compared with 24 per cent in 2018/19.

Some 45 incidents saw a child require medical treatment following the use of restraint with two children being taken to hospital from Feltham and Wetherby juvenile young offender institutions respectively. 

In 251 incidents, a warning sign was recorded including breathing difficulties, loss of consciousness and vomiting, statistics show.

Meanwhile, the number of self harm incidents has increased by 35 per cent compared with the previous year to around 2,500. 

Some 627 self-harm injuries required medical treatment in 2019/20 with 69 children needing hospital treatment compared with 39 in 2018/19.

For both self-harm and restraint incidents, numbers are at their highest in five years, figures show.

The increases come despite the number of children who received a caution or sentence falling by 82 per cent over the last 10 years, with a 12 per cent drop in the last year. 

Some 11,100 first time entrants to the YJS were recorded in 2019/20 - an 84 per cent increase compared with the year ending December 2009 and 12 per cent lower than figures recorded in the year ending 2018.

In 2019/20, 38.5 per cent of children and young people with a previous conviction reoffended - this shows a decrease of 0.2 percentage points compared with 2018/19. However, the figure is higher than that recorded a decade ago (37.7 per cent).

The report also highlights disproportionality in the youth justice system.

It states: “The proportion of black children cautioned or sentenced has been increasing over the last 10 years and is now double what it was in the year ending March 2010 (12 per cent compared to six per cent).”

It adds that “there were 10 per cent more Asian children who received a caution or sentence compared with the previous year (around 1,200), the first increase in the last 10 years and the only ethnicity group to see a rise in the latest year.”

The figures cover incidents between 1 April 2019 and 31 March 2020, a period largely unaffected by the coronavirus pandemic.

They come amid concerns over the isolation of children in their cells for as many as 23.5 hours at day.

Rainsbrook Secure Training Centre has been issued an urgent improvement notice from the MoJ over such practice.

Carolyne Willow, director of children’s rights charity Article 39, said: “Behind these statistics are hundreds of highly vulnerable children who are distressed, anxious, fearful and angry, and a prison system that simply cannot meet their needs. 

“Four years ago, the government committed to phasing out young offender institutions and secure training centres yet we are still awaiting a closure programme and strategy to make it happen.

“That techniques which inflict pain on children were used 5,261 times last year across eight institutions either run directly by the state, or contracted by government, is a stain on our system of child protection. If adults deliberately hurting children is wrong in families, schools and children’s homes, then it must be wrong for children in prison too. We cannot have a two-tier system of child protection.”