AYJ Comment: HMIP annual report on children’s experiences in custody

Commenting on HM Inspectorate of Prisons annual report on children’s experiences in custody, Pippa Goodfellow, Director of the Alliance for Youth Justice, said:

“How many more damning reports and reviews about the state of child prisons are needed for the Government to outline a clear strategy, with the bold and decisive action that is so critically needed?  

The latest independent report from the Prisons Inspectorate describes the appalling experiences and conditions in youth custody, where children with experience of care and those from Black and minority ethnic backgrounds are shockingly overrepresented and report even worse treatment. If the Government’s priority is reducing reoffending, then why are these children being so blatantly set up to fail?

The upcoming Sentencing Bill has been presented as a ‘radical sentencing overhaul to cut crime’ but is far from being a credible and coherent programme of reform. The Government’s own calculations project that proposals will increase the numbers of children in prison and exacerbate existing racial inequalities – these are regressive and unjust measures that should be opposed in Parliament.”