Nacro comments on YOI Wetherby, where a teenage girl was restrained and stripped by male prison staff.
Our chief executive, Campbell Robb, said: “It is appalling that the state’s care for vulnerable children could sink to such depths. A group of men forcibly stripping a distressed young girl, hurting and locking away children in cold cells is not how any child should be treated in a civilised society, whatever they have done in the past.”
This incident follows investigations into the young offenders facility, in which three young girls were placed as of late 2023. Wetherby has seen approximately 900 cases of self-harm in the space of a year, the highest of any prison – a majority of which were accounted for by the three girls alone.
We are appalled by this. No young person should be subject to these conditions and their mental health and wellbeing must be considered.
Following an interview with the BBC, Campbell also says: “These reports show clearly the need for radical overhaul of our approach to children in custodial sentences. We have a new school opening a therapeutic approach which we hope will begin to be part of that answer.”