England’s children’s commissioner calls for closure of young offender institutions | Children
The children’s commissioner for England has warned that the custodial institution is being used as a “waiting room” for hundreds of children who are unnecessarily locked up while awaiting trial or sentencing for failing services.
Dame Rachel de Souza said many children were detained not because they posed the greatest risk but because the systems designed to support them had failed. He called for the closure of all young offender institutions (YOIs) in England.
At the annual Longford Lecture on Tuesday night, de Souza will warn that we have “abandoned our moral duty” and become complacent about children in custody.
“We left a gap in the services that children need. We retreated from our moral duty to these children. And then we are surprised when they fall away,” he is expected to say.
“Childhood is short, wild and precious. But when you are detained, your innocence is gone. You see things. You are told you are guilty. I worry that we are complacent about children in custody. We have treated this as a battle won. We have to close all young offender institutions.”
New research into juvenile detention, where young people are held in custody awaiting trial or sentencing rather than being released on bail, shows that many children face long and unfair times behind bars.
A report published by the Commissioner on Tuesday found that more than half (62%) of children detained in England and Wales in 2023-24 did not receive a custodial sentence and 168 children (17%) had their cases dismissed outright.
The Commissioner called for urgent reforms to the youth justice system, including closing all YOIs where inspection reports have warned of violence and serious safety concerns, and instead increasing the use of placements in safe homes or specialist foster care.
In July, Ofsted reported “serious and systematic failings” at Oakhill Safe Learning Center in Milton Keynes; where 23 staff have been suspended in the last 12 months over allegations about their behavior with children.
Feltham YOI was deemed the “country’s most violent prison” in July 2024, with young prisoners refusing family visits to keep relatives out of harm’s way, and was temporarily closed in August 2025 due to safety concerns at the building.
The commissioner’s research found the average length of detention in 2021-22 was 125 nights, an increase of 89% since 2013-14. More than 1 in 10 (14%) detention cases lasted longer than 182 days; this was longer than both the 56-day detention period in the magistrates’ court and the 182-day cap in the crown court.
The proportion of children placed in foster care decreased from 13% in 2013-14 to 5% in 2021-22.
The report also found that more than half (56%) of children detained in 2021-22 were from Asian, black, mixed or other minority ethnic groups. “There is an over-representation of black and mixed ethnic groups receiving more detention sentences than would be expected given the ethnicity of the child population,” the report states.
A quarter of all children detained in 2021-22 had been previously detained.
The Department of Justice has been contacted for comment.
