Debate: Can the welfare of children in custody be improved?

Poor conditions in England’s young offenders institutions are endemic, according to a prisons watchdog – which has issued new warnings about the way children are treated in jail.

Their independent monitoring boards have published an open letter to the government, raising serious concerns about the welfare of children across the four institutions that make up the youth custody system.

We spoke to Keith Morrison, Chair of the Cookham Wood Independent Monitoring Board and also Chair of the Independent Monitoring Board Youth Forum; Andrea Albutt, President of the Prison Governors Association, and Andi Brierley, an author and youth justice specialist at Leeds Trinity University.