AYJ Comment: Purpose of specialist custodial setting the Keppel unit remains unclear

HM Inspectorate of Prisons has published (21st September 2022) its progress report on HMYOI Wetherby and the Keppel unit, highlighting a lack of improvement and continued uncertainty about Keppel’s future role.

The Keppel unit on the site of Wetherby Young Offender Institution (YOI) was designed to be a specialist facility for children with complex needs. In the past the unit received praise for providing a therapeutic environment and good outcomes, but the latest inspection report in March this year found that Keppel had “lost its identity” and was “no longer delivering a distinctive therapeutic environment”, with provision mostly “indistinguishable” from Wetherby YOI. 

Last week’s report finds a lack of progress to address these concerning findings. A review commissioned by the Youth Custody Service (YCS) into the Keppel unit’s role had not yet been published, creating uncertainty about its long-term purpose and causing delays to local leaders being able to make improvements. While the unit was designed for children nationally, it is primarily serving Wetherby YOI. And while it was designed and used solely as a unit for boys since its opening in 2009, it is now holding girls. 

Chief Inspector of Prisons Charlie Taylor recommends: “There is a need for a clear purpose, including specific admission criteria and a plan to meet the needs of the children placed there.” 

Commenting on the report, AYJ Interim Chief Executive Saqib Deshmukh said:  

“Information about the YCS-commissioned review of the Keppel unit is characteristically thin on the ground. The scope of the review is unclear, as is who has been consulted, and what might be holding up its publication.  

Critically, it is puzzling that a review about the role of the Keppel unit could usefully take place in silo from reviewing the future custodial estate as a whole. 

The deterioration of the Keppel unit, coupled with concerning findings last week about the “dysfunctional” and “frail” system failing girls, are yet more grounds for the fundamental rethink of youth custody that the pandemic demonstrated we desperately need. The unit was never designed to hold girls, and accommodating girls on the site of a boys YOI is simply not appropriate.  

Multiple reviews into failings at individual establishments have taken place over the last few years, none of which have been published. It is high time for the government to stop treating various crises across the secure estate as isolated issues and publish a national strategy, setting out a comprehensive, long-term vision for children in custody, developed with full and open consultation.”