Instead of meeting violence with violence in young offender institutions, the government must support staff in creating a culture of mutual respect.
Children and young people in young offender institutions are no strangers to violence. Many will have experienced domestic violence and sexual abuse at home, bullying and fights in local authority care. Some, a significant minority, will be in prison because they have committed a serious or violent offence. Most will have seen, heard, or become involved in assault, self-harm and suicide attempts in custody. Now, facing a rising tide of violence beleaguered by faltering pay negotiations and jostling for power within the union, the Prison Officers Association has called on the government to arm its members with batons to work with under 18-year-olds.
Meeting threat with threat, violence with violence, is something young offenders understand. They have much more trouble understanding and respecting adults in authority, talking and negotiating and learning how to take responsibility for their lives. As one young offender said: "The harder the jail, the harder it turns you, you know, mentally in your head." In the best-run and regulated young offenders institutions, managers and staff have established a disciplined environment and a hard-won culture of mutual respect. Years ago, working to set up a new healthy institution for young people, I learned from David Watlington, the first governor of Lancaster Farms, two important guiding principles: for staff receiving young men, "if this were my son ... ", for the prison itself, "prevent the next victim".
These gains are in danger of being eroded by the continual movement, or churn, of young offenders from one overcrowded jail to another and unstable, inconsistent leadership as governors move on to achieve promotion elsewhere. The average length of stay for a sentenced young man at Feltham is now just 10 days, for a boy a Lancaster Farms it is six. This is an unacceptable, dangerous situation, which makes it impossible for staff and young prisoners to know one another or work constructively together. Few of us would choose a school for our teenagers where the headteacher changed every couple of years, as is the case with governors in young offender institutions.
Add to this pit of uncertainty the excessive use of child custody, deteriorating conditions, lack of fresh air and exercise, grossly inadequate staffing levels, just eight weeks' basic training and little or no management support for prison officers and you can see why the POA would wish to reach for batons or sticks. Now the ministry of justice and the Department for Children, Schools and Families must respond. Not by fatally undermining the professional code of the prison service or the Youth Justice Board to treat everyone with decency and respect as David Blunkett did when, as home secretary, he raised a glass of champagne to the death of Harold Shipman. Not by sanctioning institutional violence or misconduct. But by reducing the numbers of children and young people in custody and responding to staff with the training, support and the resources they need to do an exceptionally challenging job on behalf of us all.
This article first appeared in the Guardian's Comment is Free |
