AYJ responds to the Prisons Strategy White Paper calling for long-term plan for the children's secure estate

AYJ has responded to the Ministry of Justice’s Prisons Strategy White Paper which sets out the government’s 10-year vision for a reformed prison system. While we welcome that the MoJ has not included the children’s secure estate in its strategy for prisons, we urge the government to work with the sector to develop a comprehensive, long-term vision for the children’s secure estate that is desperately needed and long overdue.

Our response also highlights some key concerns from the White Paper including a shocking lack of action or even acknowledgment of the need to ‘explain or reform’ the overrepresentation of racially minoritised people and their differential treatment in prisons, as well as the implications of the creation of an HMPPS workforce fast track scheme that includes those working in youth justice. We warmly welcome the commitment to a Young Women’s Strategy, and are interested in learning more and engaging with the MoJ about plans for early intervention and improving transitions from the children's to adult estate.

Our Director, Pippa Goodfellow, has also joined over 50 organisations in signing a letter to Secretary of State for Justice, Dominic Raab, addressing the White Paper’s lost opportunity to address racial disparity.

View our full Prisons Strategy White Paper response here.