Use of restraint back on the rise in secure centres despite pledge

Youth Justice Board (YJB) statistics, placed in the House of Commonslibrary, show that for the three months between April and June 2009restraint was used 535 times in England's four secure trainingcentres.

This represents a 12 per cent increase on the first three months of2009, when 478 incidents were reported, and is the highest quarterlyfigure since October to December 2007, when there were 654incidents.

The rise comes more than a year after the Labour government pledged toreduce the use of restraint following an independent review prompted bythe death of two boys in separate restraint incidents.

Penelope Gibbs, director of the Prison Reform Trust's campaign to reducechild imprisonment, said: "We have been talking about restraint foryears and there has been a commitment to reduce its use, but the wheelsseem to be going incredibly slowly," she said. "We need some action andwe need to see what the strategies are. We need fewer children in prisonbecause the staff-to-child ratios are key in the use of restraint."

Gibbs added that a major change of approach is needed in the recruitmentand training of staff in the secure estate to minimise the levels ofrestraint that are currently being used.

Last month, CYP Now revealed that a number of secure units failed tomeet a deadline for producing a restraint-minimisation strategy.

Following an independent review, the YJB was asked to ensure that secureunits holding vulnerable children and young offenders complete astrategy for minimising the use of restraint by 15 March this year.

Secure training centres are purpose-built centres for young offenders upto the age of 17, run by private operators under contracts.

They are tasked with providing a secure environment where youngoffenders can be educated and rehabilitated and have a higherstaff-to-offender ratio than young offender institutions, which are runby the Prison Service.

The YJB attributed the rise to an increase in the population in securetraining centres between the first three months of 2009 and the secondquarter of the year.