To: James Timpson Prisons Minister
END THE PRACTICE OF CHILDREN SEPARATED TO SOLITARY IN YOI'S
We would like to petition James Timpson, the new prisons minister to abolish the use of separation orders for children in Young Offenders Institutions and Secure Children's Homes. In separate HMP Inspectorate reports in 2020 and 2023, the Chief Inspector of Prisons found that separating male children as young as fourteen in to solitary confinement was a widely-used practice, in some cases, the separation lasting weeks, with time out of cell limited to just fifteen minutes a day.
Why is this important?
This is an infringement of their human rights (Article 3. European Court of Human Rights). In a new report on YOI Feltham, the HMPI report of January 2024 found the use of segregation had increased significantly, with seven children found to have been segregated for more than 50 days and two for more 100 days. (HMP Inspectorate report, Feltham B, 2024)
We want to use this petition to lobby Timpson and the government to make separating children in to solitary illegal, which in turn would lead to calls for alternative methods of supporting children in prison, which in turns requires greater investment for education and rehabilitation
