Inmates at a jail for teenagers represent 48 different gangs, inspectors have discovered, fuelling a “constant juggling” by prison officers to keep the boys apart.
There were high levels of “unpredictable and reckless” violence among the 240 boys, aged 15 to 18, at Feltham young offenders’ institution, a significant amount of which was gang-related, Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Prisons said in a report. About a quarter of the boys – most of whom are from the London area – were placed on keep-apart lists to tackle gang-related violence, inspectors said.
The report prompted the head of the prison officers’ union to claim that jail staff were managing on a “wing and prayer” and he feared one of his members could be murdered if overcrowding and staffing shortages were not addressed. The number of fights and assaults had fallen since the previous HMIP inspection, but remained too high, according to the union, with 262 incidents in the six months before the visit, including 79 assaults on staff.
Some incidents were deemed very serious by inspectors and involved gangs of boys attacking a single inmate or member of staff in a “very determined way”.
Feltham is divided into two sites, with boys aged 15 to 18 held in site A, separated from 400 young adults aged 18 to 21 in site B.
The chief inspector of prisons, Nick Hardwick, said: “The welcome reduction in the number of boys in custody means that those who remain are a more concentrated mix of very troubled boys who sometimes display very challenging and violent behaviour.
“As at other YOIs for this age group, staff in Feltham A still struggled to manage this behaviour in a safe and secure way. Staff need more help to do this and I repeat my call for the Youth Justice Board to initiate an independent expert review of its policies and resources for managing behaviour, reducing bullying and supporting victims across all YOIs.”
Use of force had increased dramatically at the site for boys, inspectors found, although supervision of, and accountability for, use of force was deemed good. About a quarter of boys spent 23 hours a day locked up in their cell, which critics said amounted to solitary confinement.
The report calls for new thinking about how to tackle the “debilitating and seemingly intractable” problem of gangs, violence and anti-social behaviour among young people. The site for young adults still faces significant challenges, inspectors said, particularly a high level of staff vacancies. However, the report did flag significant progress at site B, with a drop in the number of fights and assaults and a decrease in use of batons against inmates.
During the inspection, eight foreign nationals were being held beyond the end of their sentence – including one who had been inside for two years after the end of his sentence. Inspectors labelled this delay completely unacceptable.
Peter McParlin, chairman of the Prison Officers’ Association, told the BBC: “There’s a distinct lack of resilience in the prison system now. That’s been caused by a number of factors from outside, the increasing levels of violence outside translating inside the prisons.
“Add in the chronic overcrowding, the staffing levels we have, the acute staffing problems and so on and the use of synthetic cannabinoids, the drugs of choice, we have a very dangerous prison system.”
Andrew Neilson, director of campaigns at the Howard League for Penal Reform, said: “The problems outlined in this report are not confined to Feltham – they mirror the findings of a series of inspections conducted across the country in recent months. Staff are rightly praised by the inspectorate, but they are working in challenging environments where they are being asked to achieve the impossible.”
A previous inspection of site B in March 2013 called for a radical overhaul of the way the jail was run. Inspectors said it was one of the most concerning visits they had conducted.
Juliet Lyon, director of the Prison Reform Trust, said: “Improvements in Feltham B show the importance of providing dedicated accommodation and regimes for sentenced young adults which take account of their offending and level of maturity.
“However, despite the best efforts of staff, Feltham A remains an extremely challenging environment with extremely challenging children. Despite welcome falls in both violence and the use of segregation, there are still too many children under the age of 18 locked in their cells and sleeping through their sentences.”
The chief executive of the Youth Justice Board, Lin Hinnigan, said: “The young people placed in Feltham are some of the most challenging of the cohort we have across the youth secure estate.”