A VULNERABLE teen girl was twice pinned down and stripped by “multiple” male prison guards at a young offenders’ institution, a shock report reveals.
The girl was targeted on two separate occasions at YOI Wetherby in West Yorkshire, which houses some of the most “challenging” kids in the UK.
GoogleThe girl was twice targeted at YOI Wetherby[/caption]
Chief inspector of prisons Charlie Taylor said he is “deeply shocked” by the findings, which came following inspections at the jail last year.
The damning report found the girl was restrained and forcibly had her clothes removed by adult male officers.
According to justice officials, the guards were responding to a life-threatening situation and acted to prevent the girl from harming herself.
They also claimed no female staff were present as they had earlier been assaulted – but the report said there was “no excuse”.
It added: “This is simply not acceptable.”
Over the past 12 months, 24 children were strip-searched – with 12 of the teens restrained at the time.
Although prison bosses recorded the decision to carry out the searches, “none had recorded the authority to use restraint”.
The report also found techniques designed to cause pain were used nine times over the same period in a bid to restrain the youngsters.
An independent review panel branded each occasion the methods were deliberately used as “inappropriate”.
Mr Taylor said: “We were deeply shocked to find adult male officers restraining and stripping an incredibly vulnerable girl not once but twice.
“While they no doubt acted to prevent serious harm, the presence of multiple men pinning her down and removing her clothes will have caused further trauma and, given how predictable the behaviour of this particular girl was, the YOI has no excuse not to have made sure that female officers were in attendance.”
YOI Wetherby houses 165 “complex” children, who have been described as dangerous as men in a category A prison.
The institute has the “highest rate of self-harm of any prison in the country”, with officers often having to intervene “multiple times at night” to stop girls trying to harm themselves, inspectors said.
Girls were particularly vulnerable – with three female inmates accounting for more than half the self-harm incidents last year.
‘Potentially traumatic’ – campaigners respond to shock report
Children’s Commissioner Dame Rachel de Souza said she was “appalled” by the findings and she had written to Justice Secretary Alex Chalk to ask how conditions are being improved, adding that too many children were being “incarcerated rather than cared for”.
Strip search is an “intrusive and potentially traumatic power” and should “never” be carried out on children by a member of the opposite sex, she added.
Andrea Coomber, chief executive of the Howard League for Penal Reform which has opposed the decision to hold girls in Wetherby, said: “It is appalling that the state’s care for vulnerable children could sink to such depths… Some of the findings raise significant safeguarding concerns and potential breaches of human rights.”
While Campbell Robb, chief executive of social justice charity Nacro, branded the findings “disturbing” and said the conditions are not how “any child should be treated in a civilised society, whatever they have done in the past”.
He added: “The Government must act immediately to improve the lives of these children and to lay out a comprehensive improvement plan across all of these institutions.”
The Ministry of Justice said restraint is used on children in “rare circumstances” when there is “no alternative to prevent serious harm to the child, other children or staff”.
A spokesperson added: “Custody should always be the last resort for children who commit crime and there has been an almost 70 per cent decrease in the number of girls in youth custody since 2015, averaging just 12 girls in custody last year.
“This small number of girls have exceptionally complex needs and require specialised support, which is why YOI Wetherby is providing additional training to staff on self-harm and increasing opportunities for meaningful activity, education and personal development.”
Published: [#item_custom_pubDate]
