Introduction

While it is undoubtedly true that too many young people are in custody at any one time, for reasons that they present a ‘danger to self or others’, the use of secure accommodation is part of youth justice policy and is likely to remain so for the foreseeable future. If this is the case then there are decisions to make about what this should mean in terms of the circumstances in which young people are locked up and what kind of experiences are provided for them in the establishments where they serve their sentences. This chapter attempts to look ‘under the skin’ of the custodial regime and explore some of the critical factors influencing a young person's experience of custody and therefore its potential for providing positive experiences and opportunities for growth and development.

Background

The idea of a secure estate for children and young people is relatively recent and originates in the foundation of the Youth Justice Board (YJB) by the incoming Labour government in 1997. Since then, the YJB has been the main vehicle for the coordination of policy and practice across the whole youth justice system, with particular responsibility for raising standards in all types of custodial provision, in terms of both cost-effectiveness and regime provision.

Despite the structural and managerial changes of recent years, it is important to recognise the different historical traditions from which the present configuration of secure accommodation has emerged and to understand the impact that these have on the culture of individual establishments. The extent to which history shapes culture may be debatable; but, undeniably, the formal and informal narratives that make up the history of a particular establishment have a continuing part to play in the way that staff interpret their experiences and understand the establishment's role and purpose. This, in turn, impacts on the young people who pass through the establishment and contributes significantly to how they experience custody.

The history of residential childcare, the ‘service’ context for secure children's homes (SCHs), is quite different to that of young offender institutions (YOIs), which sit within the Prison Service and whose history is located within that of penal institutions. Secure training centres (STCs) are the most recent type of secure accommodation and were developed for the purpose of responding to a specific group of ‘young persistent offenders’, although their usage has become more generic under the stewardship of the YJB.