Child inmates spending 20 hours in cells - report

Children in a West Yorkshire prison were sometimes in cells for more than 20 hours a day and did not get the minimum hours of education, figures have suggested.

In January, children at Wetherby Young Offender Institution would leave their cells for less than two hours and 20 minutes on a weekend day and would get an average of six hours and 25 minutes schooling a week, according to Ministry of Justice (MoJ) statistics.

Andrea Coomber, from the Howard League for Penal Reform, said: "Children need fresh air, exercise, education and contact with others if they're to grow up to lead healthy lives."

An MOJ spokesperson said the government inherited a system "in crisis", but education was a priority.

MoJ data for the 14 months to February 2025, which has been shared in a report by the Howard League, showed children at Wetherby would spend about 20 hours a day in cells at weekends.

Weekend days in January 2025 had been the most restrictive, with just two hours and 19 minutes on average spent by inmates away from cells.

The average time out of cells had peaked in February 2024, when inmates would get about six and a half hours out on a weekday.

Ms Coomber, chief executive of the Howard League and a former judge, said: "Unlike adult prisons, prisons that hold children are not overcrowded and are relatively well-resourced.

"Regimes ought to be much better, but time and again we find they are not."

While children in Young Offender Institutions needed "fresh air, exercise, education and contact with others", Ms Coomber said: "This isn't happening in Wetherby prison."

There are few rules about how long prisoners should spend out of their accommodation, however there is a legal requirement that children of statutory school age in prison must receive at least 15 hours of education per week.

None of the 14 months included in the MoJ data saw the average weekly classroom hours at Wetherby meet that legal requirement.

January 2025 was the worst month for education hours at the site, with inmates getting about an hour and a quarter of schooling per weekday.

The best months were in January, February, September and October in 2024, when inmates received between 10-12 hours of education on average per week.

However, the MoJ noted that its data only dealt with classroom hours and did not include learning opportunities in "outreach and activities".

According to the goverment's website, children at Wetherby were offered 15 hours of "core education" and six hours of vocational courses per week.

The Howard League said Wetherby had "failed routinely to deliver enough purposeful activity during the week" and was not meeting the minimum requirement.

Ms Coomber said children were "locked up for hours on end in their cells and routinely, without even the minimum amount of education they are entitled to receive".

"Many of the children trapped in this failing system should not be in custody at all, and certainly not in prisons like these," she added.

Responding, an MoJ spokesperson said: "This government inherited a criminal justice system in crisis and these figures reflect the strain that has been on the youth estate for too many years.

"Education continues to be a priority for the Youth Custody Service and we are developing tailored learning plans to better support children to turn their lives around."

Custody was only ever used as a "last resort" for children, the spokesperson added, noting that the number of youth inmates was at its lowest ever, with an average of 430 under-18s in custody at any one time in 2023-24.

Listen to highlights from West Yorkshire on BBC Sounds, catch up with the latest episode of Look North