A union of charities announced the case of closing England’s child prisons due to the ill-treatment of children meanwhile COVID 19 is intensifying that harm.
The announcement originally came out in 2016 but there was nothing done about it. Officials think about turning one prison into an experimental school, this caused charities to react against the government which allows that to happen. Today’s publication, ‘The case for ending child imprisonment’, attempts to lower the number of segregated children and alleviate the community into a child-oriented one.
Since 2003 there have been closures for 16 secure children's homes, which stood in the way of transferring children to secure places that are in turn not provided by the community. Charities are working to push the government to announce a program for closing child prisons, that also has to declare restoring essential community-based services and substantial aid for children. The campaign was induced by an inspection report about Rainsbrook secure training center in Northamptonshire. Children there are put into solitary confinement for their first two weeks, kept in their cells for 23.5 hours a day, and are taken in from the age of 12.
Carolyne Willow, Director of Article 39, said: “The appalling conditions which incarcerated children continue to endure during the COVID-19 pandemic are nothing short of a national child abuse scandal.”
Deborah Coles, Director of INQUEST, said: “Child prisons are damaging and dangerous places. High rates of self-harm and painful restraint continue to be endemic to the culture of these institutions.
Helen Mills, Head of Programmes, Centre for Crime and Justice Studies, said: “There is no such thing as a safe child prison.