'Failing' Wetherby children's prison locking boys up alone for 20 hours a day, report reveals
Criticism has been levelled at the children’s prison in Wetherby after stark figures revealed youngsters are being locked in their cells alone for more than 20 hours a day.
Statistics obtained by the charity, The Howard League for Penal Reform, suggests Wetherby YOI (Young Offender Institution) is one of four “failing” in providing sufficient activity or education for the young detainees.
The others include Feltham in West London, Werrington in Staffordshire and Parc in Bridgend, Wales. Wetherby is the largest children’s prison in the UK with beds for more than 250 convicted youngsters.
Prisons must deliver at least 15 hours of education per week to children of statutory school age - the bare minimum required with the government expecting prisons to provide more.
However, figures show that at times over the last year, Wetherby provided as low as seven hours a week of education. Youngsters are also locked up in their single-occupancy cells for around 19 hours a day during the week and even longer at weekends.
Andrea Coomber KC, chief executive of the Howard League for Penal Reform, said: “Children need fresh air, exercise, education and contact with others if they are to grow up to lead healthy lives. But this isn't happening in Wetherby prison, and the figures we have collected underline the need for the government to act.
"Unlike adult prisons, prisons that hold children are not overcrowded and are relatively well resourced.
“Regimes ought to be much better, but time and again we find that they are not, with children locked up for hours on end in their cells and routinely without even the minimum amount of education that they are entitled to receive.
"Many of the children trapped in this failing system should not be in custody at all, and certainly not in prisons like these.”
The data was unearthed following Freedom of Information Act requests from The Howard League.
Time spent out of cells on weekdays for children in Wetherby was at its highest in February 2024 (six hours and 25 minutes per day on average) and lowest in December 2024 (three hours and 56 minutes).
At weekends, monthly averages ranged from four hours and 46 minutes in July 2024 to two hours and 19 minutes in January 2025.
During the 14-month period from January 2024 to February 2025, Wetherby prison rarely delivered more than 10 hours of education per week on average, let alone the mandated 15 hours.
The Howard League’s analysis comes weeks after the Children’s Commissioner for England, Dame Rachel de Souza, called for urgent reforms to the youth justice system to ensure that education plays a central role.
In response to the figures, a Ministry of Justice (MoJ) spokesperson said: “This government inherited a criminal justice system in crisis and these figures reflect the strain that has been on the youth estate for too many years.
“Custody is only ever used as a last resort for children. Education continues to be a priority for the Youth Custody Service and we are developing tailored learning plans to better support children to turn their lives around.”
Wetherby YOI began as a Borstal in 1958, switching to an open youth custody centre and then to a closed youth custody centre before becoming the YOI, housing males aged from 15.