Ashfield YOI creates education unit for its younger inmates

The Gloucestershire-based YOI created the new residential unit especially for 15- and 16-year-olds in the prison to provide them with better learning opportunities. There will be a strong focus on education so disruption to their learning is kept to a minimum.

Ashfield YOI is run by private company Serco and holds up to 400 young men aged from 15 to 18. The unit - named Brook Wing by the young people - is the first of its kind within a Serco facility. It will house 38 young people, four of which will be aged 16 to 17 and will act as mentors to the younger inmates.

The mentors will have to prove they are responsible and can act as role models to have a positive impact on the younger children. By giving them responsibility it is hoped they will change their ways, which will rub off on the younger inmates.

The mentors will be trained in restorative justice and mediation techniques and will be able to advise younger people on issues such as bullying.

They will also be important in getting the young people to attend the school in the Brook Wing, which will provide a mix of vocational and academic education.

A spokesman for Serco said the firm wanted to prevent younger offenders learning bad habits from some of the older inmates. "We want to see these young people back out in the community, not coming back in here," he said.

"We don't want them to be serving an apprenticeship for the penal system but want them to use their time here to skill up and move on from whatever incident brought them here."

Juliet Lyon, director of the Prison Reform Trust, said: "Ashfield's initiative is an attempt to improve a desperate situation but it doesn't address the fundamental problem of whether prison can ever be the right place for children of this age."