Separation of children in young offender institutions – review of progress

What we found

In January 2020, we published a report on the use of separation in young offender institutions which found that children were being subject to widespread solitary confinement, spending more than 22 hours a day locked in their cells with no meaningful human contact or oversight. This review of progress found that separation continues to be used in response to high levels of conflict and in the absence of effective, motivational behaviour management schemes in YOIs. Leaders failed to provide most separated children with adequate access to education and other interventions, which in some cases were limited to just a few minutes a day. In the worst cases, on some days, children did not leave their cell at all.

Points to note: Oversight remained inadequate. Data was now being collected centrally, but in most YOIs this did not match local data.