Unlocking the potential for Change: Reforming Custody for Children

An important challenge the next government will face is the expectation that the numbers of children aged 15-17 in youth custody will double by 2025 (National Audit Office 2022). Official figures illustrate that the number of children in custody has fallen significantly for more than a decade and is currently at a historic low. Currently, there are around 340 under 18s serving custodial sentences (HM Prison and Probation Service and the Youth Custody Service 2023). This projection is concerning because not only are numbers projected to double, but the conditions in which children are kept in custody are dire. A research project that I led from 2020-2022, found that children’s time spent out of cell can be as little as 1 hour per day, violent incidents and self-harm are increasing, education provision is poor, as is preparation for release and resettlement (Smithson and Jump, 2024, https://doi.org/10.1093/bjc/azae015)

The policy change I would like to see discussed during the general election is the closing of Youth Offender Institutes (YOIs). YOIs are the closest establishment we have to adult prisons in England and Wales. The majority of children serving custodial sentences do so in one of four YOIs. We know that YOIs are not fit for purpose, in 2017, the Chief Inspector of Prisons concluded that no YOI was safe to hold children  and more recently, the final report of the Independent Review of Children’s Social Care stated that YOIs are ‘wholly unsuitable’ for children and ‘should be phased out within the next ten years’ . The Ministry of Justice (MoJ) currently has overall responsibility for YOIs. This responsibility should be passed to the Department for Education to support a more child focused approach, rather than the adultification of children and the punitive regimes presided over by the MoJ.

If this policy was implemented, it would be the first step in a commitment to addressing the conditions in which children are imprisoned. Children in custody have generally suffered substantial levels of trauma from racism, neglect, and abuse. The majority have experienced local authority care and half have some form of neurodiversity (House of Commons Library 2022; Gray et al. 2023, Day 2022). They need trauma-informed care and a system underpinned by welfare, not the current regime underpinned by punishment and retribution. Alongside this, the current system does not work. Over half of children sentenced to custody re-offend post-release. The cost of this is estimated to be between £22million and £52million. The closure of YOIs would signal an urgent and unwavering need to seek alternative solutions to custody for children.