Inspectors find high use of force and strip-searching at Ashfield YOI

In response to the Chief Inspector’s report on HMYOI Ashfield, the Prison Reform Trust called on the Ministry of Justice to end the routine strip-searching of children in custody. According to government figures, one in four boys in custody has experienced violence at home and one in twenty has been sexually abused.

Prison schooling young men and women in crime

Locking up impressionable young men and women in adult jails with nothing to do risks creating a disaffected generation more likely to turn to crime, according to a new report by the Prison Reform Trust.

Are police stations failing to safeguard children?

Commenting on the publication of Who’s looking out for children – a joint inspection of Appropriate Adult provision and children in detention after charge, Out of Trouble director Penelope Gibbs said:

Is care a stepping stone to custody?

“What I’ve heard from different police officers when I’ve been arrested, it’s like, ‘you’re a kid in care, you’re never [going to] get out of this way of life. You’re in care, kids in care are always on drugs, kids in care always make themselves unsafe, kids in care always self-harm’. So they sort of put a title on kids in care like they’re something bad.” 16 year old girl with a conviction   

Out of Trouble responds to the proposed abolition of the YJB

Out of Trouble has responded to the government's consultation on the Public Bodies Bill, which proposes to abolish the Youth Justice Board.

The Bill is due back in Parliament on Monday 17th October.