Branded a 'secure college', the government is planning to build one of the largest children's prisons in Europe. At a cost of £85 million, they plan to coop up 320 troubled young people on a single site. Children’s prisons are violent and dangerous environments which fail to turn lives around and threaten public safety.

Young people who end up in the criminal justice system have a whole host of complex needs, from backgrounds of abuse or neglect to poor educational attainment. All evidence shows these problems can be tackled through effective community sentences. They are never resolved behind the walls of a huge prison.

The very small number of children who truly require custody should be held in very small secure homes, focused on their complex welfare needs.

Instead of pursuing this wasteful and dangerous policy, the government must halt their plans, invest instead in alternatives to custody and reduce the number of children held behind bars.

Find out more about this issue on the U R Boss website, the youth participation project of the Howard League for Penal Reform.

Photo courtesy of Andrew Aitchison of Prison Image.