Children's Imprisonment in Wales (or not!)...

Dr Robert Jones of the Welsh Governance Centre has produced an excellent document which pulls together all the available data on imprisonment in Wales.

Get tons more content, including video and audio posts, for a small monthly subscription on Jonny 24/7 – here…

Key facts about children’s imprisonment…

– The number of children in prison in Wales has fallen by 69% over the last ten years, down by 2,078 to only 870 in March 2018

– Between 2010 and 2017 the number of Welsh children in prison fell by 72%, compared to a 57% reduction in to total across England and Wales.

– In 2017, Welsh children were imprisoned as follows:

– Detention & Training Orders – 87%

– Section 90-91 Detention – 11%

– Section 226b Recall – 2%

Image courtesy of ©Wales Governance Centre, Cardiff University

– In 2017, Welsh children were imprisoned in the following places:

– Young Offenders Institutions – 73%

– Secure Training Centres – 15%

– Secure Children’s Homes – 12%

Join the mailing list and get your free e-book, ‘Connecting With Troubled Young People’ – click

– The YJB’s decision to close custodial facilities and decommission beds has meant increasing numbers of children being sent to distant places to prison:

– 45% of all Welsh children in custody are being held in England

– The majority are held in HMYOI Werrington

– Each 25-mile interval that a child was held from home was associated with one less from a family member or friend…

– …and one less visit from a professional responsible for the care of children in the community

Safety inside…

– Rates of self-harm have marginally increased to 9 per 100 children annually

– One third of all boys imprisoned felt

– HM Inspector of Prison concluded in 2017 that they had no visited a single establishment ‘in which it was safe to hold children.‘

Get the audio versions of my newer blog posts on Jonny 24/7 – here…

Final word

Whilst the huge drop ion the numbers of children in custody – particularly in Wales – is a good news story, the overall picture for children in prison is a grim one.

There is a need to completely re-think the provision in line with the rights children have under the UNCRC (articles 20, 25, 37 and 39 particularly, and article 30 for welsh-speaking children) and what we know about effective rehabilitation.

‘There can be no keener revelation of a society’s soul than the way it treats its children.’ Nelson Mandela