Incidents of violence increase by more than 50% at Feltham YOI

In the latest inspection of the London setting incidents of disorder were found to have almost tripled and recorded rates of violence increased from 182 to 410 in 12 months.

Some children were said to have stopped family visits in case violence broke out in front of their families, inspectors revealed.

The inspection by HMI Prisons took place between 4 and 14 March this year and found a considerable peak in violence between summer and November 2023, with the use of force by staff, usually in response to violence, found to have increased by 68%.

• Inspections clinic: Youth justice services

• Interview: Steph Roberts-Bibby, chief executive of the Youth Justice Board

Violence was found to have occurred within the education block, which led to its closure from 22 August until early September.

Pupils were assigned to classes based on plans to reducing fighting rather than educational ability, inspectors said. This, along with 266 different keep-apart instructions, prevented children from mixing and led to limited access to education and medical appointments.

Segregation of children from their peers was an ongoing concern highlighted by inspectors, as seven children had been separated for more than 50 days and two for more than 100 days. Children spent an average of just over four hours out of their cell on weekdays and three hours forty minutes at weekends, despite a target set by inspectors advising that children should be out of their cells for 10 hours each day.

Charlie Taylor, chief inspector of prisons, said: “We were very concerned to find how Feltham A had deteriorated in the past two years, but it is to the credit of the governor and her leadership team that there were signs that they had managed to arrest this decline. Frontline staff, meanwhile, were a real asset to the jail and had managed to maintain impressively positive and supportive relationships with even the most challenging children in their care despite the violence around them.”

Levels of self-harm were also found to have significantly increased, and leaders were found to have a lack of sufficient oversight of the quality of education provision on offer.

Ofsted rated the overall quality of education and leadership at Feltham YOI as "inadequate".

Andrew Neilson, director of campaigns at the Howard League for Penal Reform, said: “Over a decade ago, the then-chief inspector of prisons, Nick Hardwick, said he would be ‘terrified’ if his children were sent to Feltham. The prison was so violent that the Ministry of Justice announced it would be closed. Yet here we are, all these years on, and Feltham is still open and more violent than ever. This is a damning indictment of the prison system, as the capacity issues seen in the adult estate are not present in children’s prisons.”

The inspectorate concluded that safety and purposeful activity were rated ‘poor’, and care and resettlement were rated ‘reasonably good’, as seven of the 13 recommendations set from the last inspection in 2022 had not been achieved.