New report slams Rochester youth prison conditions

KentOnline / KMTV

HMP young offenders institute, Cookham Wood, was previously found to have "a near total breakdown in behaviour management" by the Chief Inspector of Prisons' last year.

Transcript

00:00 an abysmally poor regime. A regime that amounted to solitary confinement.

00:07 These are just some of the findings from the latest reports by the Independent

00:11 Monitoring Board for the Rochester Young Offenders Institute, Cook & Wood.

00:16 Last April, the inspectorate for prisons said there was a failure to ensure even adequate treatment

00:23 for children at Cook & Wood. Now, the legally required independent body for the prison says

00:29 the amount of time young offenders are spending in cells is inhumane.

00:34 We need to see more prison officers in the prison estate. If we are enabling prisons to do the work

00:43 that we're asking them to do, then prisons need sufficient prison officers to enable them to

00:49 safely and securely get prisoners out of their cells and into, in the case of a YOI, into education

00:58 and other interventions.

01:00 The IMB say that problems at this prison are not unique, that there's a sector-wide crisis

01:06 with staff recruitment and that's what's leading to some young offenders spending up to 22 hours a

01:12 day locked in their cells here at Cook & Wood.

01:16 But penal reform groups say the problems are so deep-rooted that the prison's future is untenable.

01:23 I mean, Cook & Wood, how many chances can you give a place? And it might not be the fault of

01:28 any individual member of staff there. It's obviously been going on so long, it's a systemic

01:32 issue. But it's unconscionable that you could continue to keep boys as young as 15 in that

01:38 environment. And it's incredible that you would hope for those children to be given the support

01:43 they require in that environment.

01:45 We reached out to the Ministry of Justice for comment. A youth custody spokesperson told

01:51 KNTV that Cook & Wood is home to some of society's most troubled children,

01:57 many with violent convictions. But we know much more needs to be done to better help the young

02:02 people in our care to turn their backs on crime.

02:06 This is why, as the report recognises, we have put in place robust plans to improve safety and

02:12 support for those with complex needs. And across the youth estate, assaults are down on the previous

02:19 year. With improvements on violence and education in the prison, there is hope going forward.

02:26 But with staffing still so low, the path to recovery will be a long one.

02:32 Oliver Leader, The Sachs, reporting for KNTV.

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