DEMORALISED AND HESITANT STAFF FAILING TO KEEP CHILDREN SAFE AT KENT YOI
HM Inspectorate of Prisons
We are the independent inspector of prisons and other places of detention in England and Wales.
Today, HMI Prisons has published the full report from an inspection of HMYOI Cookham Wood which led to an urgent notification in April.
The inspection found an establishment that had continued to deteriorate and was now of considerable concern, with weapon making and violence rife and boys held in solitary confinement for extended periods. Some staff members seemed to have ‘given up’ and no longer even bothered to wear the correct uniform to work.
Cookham Wood held only 77 boys at the time of inspection, whose care was being overseen by around 360 staff, including 24 senior leaders. Nearly a quarter of the boys in the YOI said that they felt unsafe; this was perhaps unsurprising in view of the levels of violence and the more than 200 weapons found in the months leading up to the inspection.
Rather than engaging in conflict resolution, leaders had introduced extensive instructions on which boys were known to be in conflict and needed to be kept apart from each other. At the time of the inspection, 90% of boys were being kept apart from other prisoners, resulting in nearly 600 separate instructions. This undermined the provision of any meaningful regime, with access to education and other activities determined by which children could safely mix, rather than their individual needs or abilities.
?Despite this, levels of violence remained high and some boys spent days on end languishing in their cells in response to incidents. During that time, most had hardly any meaningful human interaction. Other children were separated for their own protection, and inspectors met two boys who had been subjected to solitary confinement for more than 100 days because staff could not guarantee their safety.
?HM Chief Inspector of Prisons, Charlie Taylor said:
“Cookham Wood holds some of the most challenging yet vulnerable children in the criminal justice system. Staff should be supporting them in learning how to manage their behaviour and deal with conflict so that violence is reduced within the YOI, and they are less likely to reoffend on release. Instead, we found boys locked in their cells overseen by demoralised, frightened staff while leaders stayed out of sight in their offices. Perhaps unsurprisingly, staff spoke openly of how little confidence they had in the leadership. We were surprised and concerned to hear that, since the new governor had been appointed, no senior leader from the Youth Custody Service had been to see for themselves the failings at Cookham Wood.”
Evidence of the deterioration of Cookham Wood was also apparent in the physical conditions of the YOI. Living units were dirty, important equipment was broken and graffiti was rife. Significantly, standards in staff facilities, such as offices, were also not good enough. No one it seemed, had challenged any of this deterioration.?
Mr Taylor said:
“These findings would be deeply troubling in any prison, but given that Cookham Wood holds children, they were completely unacceptable. As a result, I had no choice but to write to the secretary of state immediately after the inspection and invoke the urgent notification process.”
The report, published today, notes that there will need to be urgent, concerted and long-term commitment from leaders at the YOI and from the Youth Custody Service to improve standards at Cookham Wood and make it an acceptable place to hold children.
Read the report: HMYOI Cookham Wood (justiceinspectorates.gov.uk)
Psychologist in Clinical Health (PJG Psychological Services)
1 年This Report is appalling, and totally unacceptable! HMYOI Cookham Wood accommodates some of the most vulnerable young people within UK's secure estates. If we are unable to motivated staff, and supply the very basic appropriate resources, how can anybody expect these Young Offenders, many of which are assessed with multiple neuodivergencies, complex trauma and more than one ACEs, to be cared for in way that is humain, therapeutically driven, and provided to instill behavioural change in a supportive environment. Come on really?, we have the most promising Sec of State, respondible English and Welsh YOI's this country has seen for years. The cost per YOI at CW is more expensive than either School fees for Eaton or Harrow. The people of England and Wales really need to take an interest, in just what is going on inside our institutions. At the end of the day, we as the wider community, are responsible for this farce. So, Look after your staff...!
Programme Manager of Interventions at HMPPS
1 年The very sad thing about children in custody is they are no longer supervised by experienced staff. The prison service allowed for prison officers with decades of experience in amongst them to be pushed out in place of those willing to complete qualifications about a job that they had done for most of their adult lives and replaced with young people straight out of university. Young people who join the service are instantly put at a serious detriment with no experience to learn from, most have not experienced how prisons worked prior to the pandemic and instead of looking at the much larger picture of how to keep children and staff safe we blame the single establishments when this is a much larger and wider ministerial and policy making cause and effect. If we want better run prisons for children, the service should take a step back to consider the impact of the often poorly communicated decisions enforced on existing staffing groups and invest time in working on current problems as opposed to covering them up with complete new ones and then blaming at a local level. Understand the pasts of the children to influence their futures.
Quality Assurance Teacher- Youth Justice at The Virtual School Manchester City Council
1 年Horrific….
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1 年Let's hope the situation improves soon and greatly. The children although done wrong in the first place, should get their education and learn to solve their issues or differences, prepear them for eventuall release and world so as to avoid re offending. Staff moral need to improve and environment a cleaner and safer place to work.