Concern over staff shortages in YOIs

The government figures show youth prisons have suffered from more unfilled vacancies than adult prisons for the past three years.

In 2005, three per cent of YOI posts were unfilled compared with 1.9 in adult prisons. During 2007, YOIs have had a shortfall of 2.8 per cent, compared with 2.2 per cent in adult prisons.

Juliet Lyon, director of the Prison Reform Trust, said: "It is difficult to be confident that young people with such high levels of unmet mental health needs and past experience of the care system can be safely cared for in institutions with exceptionally low staffing levels."

Frances Crook, director of the Howard League for Penal Reform, said the staff shortages in youth prisons had to be tackled urgently.

"Children more than anyone else in the prison system require a high staff-to-inmate ratio," she said. "These figures on staff shortages highlight the fact that prisons for children are failing institutions that cannot provide safe or therapeutic regimes."