Prison failing children in custody, says charity

Children in a Young Offenders Institute were not getting enough activity and education, a charity has said.

HMYOI Werrington, near Stoke-on-Trent, was not delivering enough purposeful activity during the week for its young inmates, the Howard League for Penal Reform said

The charity, which aims to tackle social injustice, said the monthly average time children were out of their cells and in education at England's three YOIs had barely improved since early 2024 when the charity last raised concerns. The other centres are in Wetherby and Feltham.

The Ministry of Justice (MoJ) said it was taking measures to boost the time children have out of their cells and improve their access to learning.

Figures from the MoJ, obtained by the Howard League through a freedom of information (FOI) request, showed children at Werrington were out of their cells for an average of five hours and one minute on weekdays in November.

The figure was less than three hours per day at weekends for most of the year, the charity added.

It said the legal requirement was for prisons to deliver at least 15 hours of education per week to child prisoners but Werrington only provided an average of 13.4 hours in December, following its 2025 low point of 7.6 in April.

At HMYOI Wetherby in West Yorkshire, children spent an average of five hours and 40 minutes out of their cells every day in December and were provided with 10.7 hours of education per week.

Youngsters at HMYOI Feltham in London were out of their cells for less than four hours per day towards the end of 2025 and, in December, were given 3.6 hours of education every week.

Andrea Coomber, chief executive of the Howard League, said: "Children in custody are being failed again and again by a toxic criminal justice system."

She said the government announced it was embarking on "the most significant overhaul of youth justice in a generation" but it had failed to commit to closing prisons holding children.

An MoJ spokesperson said custody should be a "last resort" for children and only reserved for those who have committed serious crimes or pose a risk to the public.

"We've put specialist plans in place at Wetherby and Werrington to boost time out of cell and access to learning," they added.

"And to steer even more young people away from crime in the first place, we're investing more than £15m to tackle the causes of their offending."

Follow BBC Stoke & Staffordshire on BBC Sounds, Facebook, X and Instagram.