A girl being held in an institution for young offenders was pinned down and forcibly stripped by a group of male prison guards, according to an observer.
Chief Inspector of Prisons Charlie Taylor said he was “deeply shocked” by the findings, which revealed the “incredibly vulnerable” young prisoner was restrained and stripped of his clothing by “multiple men” on two occasions at YOI Wetherby in West Yorkshire.
Home to some of the most “challenging” juveniles in the country, the watchdog likened the “motley group” of teenagers behind bars there to being as dangerous as men in category A adult prisons.
Almost half of the children at Wetherby were previously in council care and the area “has the highest rate of self-harm of any prison in the country”; officers often have to intervene “many times a night” to stop girls trying to attack. investigators said they harmed themselves.
At Wetherby, girls were particularly vulnerable to self-harm; three people held there accounted for more than half of last year’s self-harm incidents; this was “the primary reason for the use of force and attacks on personnel”, according to one report. It was published on Tuesday and added.
Mr Taylor said: “We were deeply shocked to see adult male officers restrain and rob an incredibly defenseless girl not once but twice.
“While they undoubtedly acted to prevent serious harm, multiple men pinning her down and stripping her of her clothes would have caused further trauma, and given how predictable this girl’s behavior was, YOI has no excuse not to do so.” “I was sure the policewomen were there too.”
According to justice officials, the officers were responding to a life-threatening situation and were taking action to prevent the girl from harming herself; Female staff did not attend the ceremony because they were attacked at the beginning of the shift.
But the report said inspectors had “serious concerns about the use of all-male teams to cut clothes off vulnerable girls”, adding: “This is completely unacceptable.”
Inspections carried out in November and December last year also raised concerns about how often child prisoners were robbed and force was used against them while being restrained.
Approximately 24 children were strip-searched in the last 12 months; 12 of these occurred while being restrained.
Although prison bosses had recorded the decision to carry out strip searches, “none had recorded the authority to use restraints”, according to the findings.
Techniques that deliberately cause pain to restrain the child have been used nine times in the past 12 months, but were deemed “inappropriate” each time by an independent review panel.
Mr Taylor said it was a credit to the prison governor that “most relationships between staff and children are relatively positive compared to other YOIs”, but added: “This is hardly credible in a prison where there are only 165 children, with 24 senior managers and 67 other children.” “We said administrators told us they were unable to provide children with frequent, structured contact with staff due to a lack of officers.”
Children’s Commissioner Dame Rachel de Souza said she was “horrified” by the findings and wrote to Justice Secretary Alex Chalk asking how conditions had been improved, adding that too many children were “imprisoned rather than cared for”.
He said strip searches were an “intrusive and potentially traumatic force” and should “never” be performed on children by a member of the opposite sex.
Andrea Coomber, chief executive of the Howard League for Sentencing Reform, which opposed the decision to keep the girls at Wetherby, said: “It is appalling how deep the state’s care for vulnerable children has gone… Some of the findings raise serious concerns about safety. and potential human rights violations.”
Campbell Robb, chief executive of social justice charity Nacro, described the findings as “disturbing” and said the conditions were “not how any child should be treated in a civilized society, regardless of what he or she has done in the past”, adding: “The government is doing this by ruining these children’s lives.” “Take immediate action to improve and prepare a comprehensive improvement plan for all these institutions.”
Labour’s shadow justice secretary, Shabana Mahmood, said the findings were “extremely worrying” and called for an investigation into the treatment of children at Wetherby.
“There are no plans under the Conservatives to manage girls in youth care. “They are failing in their duty to care for some of the most vulnerable people in the safe environment of youth,” he said.
A Ministry of Justice spokesman said: “Custody should always be a last resort for offending children and there has been an almost 70% reduction in the number of girls in youth custody since 2015, with an average of just 12 girls detained last year.
“This small number of girls have extremely complex needs and require special support, which is why HMYOI Wetherby is providing staff with additional training on self-harm and increasing opportunities for meaningful activity, education and personal development.
“Restraint is only used in rare circumstances where there is no other alternative to prevent serious harm to children, other children or staff.”