The Future of Youth Custody - thoughts from Ed Cornmell
"We need to change the future of youth custody."
So says Ed Cornmell, Executive Director for the Youth Custody Service. In2Out asked him to explain more and tell us his vision of what it could look like.
​As Executive Director of the Youth Custody Service, Ed is responsible for providing custody environments for children and young people aged 10-18 in England and Wales. This includes three public sector Youth Offender Institutions [YOI], and one privately delivered in Wales, as well as Secure Children's Homes and the Secure Training Centre.
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​​"The Youth Custody Estate is very diverse. We have not just the provision of the YOIs in our environment, which are the biggest part of the estate, but some very clearly child-centred environments: Secure Children's Homes, who care for children for welfare reasons as well as justice reasons, the dedicated Secure Training Centre, and a now newly dedicated Secure School, which will open in Medway in spring this year [2024]. They are very focused and care for children absolutely."
One of the challenges facing Ed, is that with only three YOIs in England, young people can end up in custody some distance from their family and community, in a larger institution and in-custody population, which can seem more like an adult prison. This has been compounded in recent years with a change in age profile of young people in prison, as younger children's offending behaviour is more often dealt with in the community.
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"Over the last decade we have seen a considerable fall in children in custody from thousands to around 500. We've managed to divert children from custody, but of course, that's meant that we're seeing children and young people coming into custody later in their childhood. So, we're seeing an average population of age 17 and, because of the serious nature of those offences that they've committed, much longer sentences being served. So inevitably a lot of our children aren't released into the community - a good number are transitioning into the adult estate."
"We're bringing together children who have committed some serious offences, children whose behaviour, whose own individual needs, are challenging. And to put them into one environment clearly presents some challenges."
Over recent years, the time taken to bring a case to court has increased, resulting in young people in custody being held on remand rather than serving a sentence.
"About 45% of children in custody are currently remanded in custody rather than sentenced. We've got to work to try and make sure that those who are remanded really need to be there, that there aren't alternatives. Instead of remanding a child into custody and then, at a later stage, they would be released, unconvicted, broken victims without any other criminal justice outcome. That is an area of focus for us.
"It is really essential that whilst that child is with us, to keep them safe and that we provide decent care. That sometimes can be challenging based on some of the risks, complexities and challenges of managing quite a complex and unfortunately violent population of children who have got significant needs and vulnerabilities."
In reflecting on these issues, Ed sees that there is learning to be taken from other parts of the Youth Custody Estate, especially the Secure Children's Homes.
"They are child-centred, they are based in communities closer to the communities where children are from, and they are much smaller than our YOIs. My objective is to try and move further into that direction.
"If a child has come into custody because of the nature of their offence and because of their risk to the public, it is right that we hold them in an environment that is closer to their community, that is smaller, that's more homely than a prison-like institution. It will still effectively carry out the sentence of the court and support victims in the criminal justice system. But it will be more impactful in making a difference to rehabilitate, to change and provide the opportunity for that individual child to form effective relationships for the future, that keeps them away from crime."
What of Ed's vision for the future of the Youth Custody estate? He speaks of
"[building] an estate that is small, in the community, more diverse, be that secure schools or some provision that manages the most serious offending group of children that we've got. There's a diverse nature of custody needed but it needs to be smaller, it needs to be closer to the community, to allow us to deliver those individual child-centred approaches that get the best outcomes. So, I'd focus on absolutely delivering that physical environment that allows our fantastic people to be absolutely let loose to do what they can do, which is to work with children to get the best outcomes.
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"The ability to manage a child in the community, closest to their families, closest to those networks in the community, with a view that they're going to be members of that community, is the right approach."