Prisons for juveniles 'fail UN standards'

Young offendors in England and Wales are kept in conditions so poor that they breach United Nations standards for children, a charity said in a report published on Friday.

Bullying is widespread and juveniles are not given the care or help that they need, with little done to prepare them for release, the Howard League for Penal Reform said.

"Children in prison may have committed crimes but they are still children," said Charlotte Day, the author of the first two of a series of reports on juveniles in prison. "They should be entitled to the same level of care and protection provided for children in every other setting."

The charity investigated conditions in two institutions housing male offenders aged 15 to 17. It found that both failed to meet standards set out in the 1989 United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child.

At Lancaster Farms, Lancaster, the charity found a lack of night-time supervision could mean critical delays with suicide attempts, while Castington Young Offenders' Institution in Northumberland had an "insidious" bullying problem.

There are 2,478 offenders aged 15 to 17 in English and Welsh institutions.

The Prison Service's director general, Martin Narey, said the Howard League's opposition to prison custody for young people had "clouded its perspective to the transformation which is recognised by other critics".