Don't Look Back in Anger

Back in the early 1990’s, in one of the more disreputable periods in my career, I worked in the Home Office helping to design the new Secure Training Centres. I remember accompanying a senior mandarin to Northern Ireland to look at their Training schools.

At St Patrick’s, run by the De La Salle Brothers we were offered a glass of sherry -it was about 10.am. We watched the boys running – and in some cases hobbling- around the yard -as Brother Francis struggled to explain the legal basis of their detention and showed us bare dormitories and boxing trophies. We moved on to Rathgael, the Protestant School – run by imposing and large sharp-suited men but seemingly a bit more modern in its approach. Lisnevin – a mixed but miserable Borstal establishment down the coast completed our tour.

If its purpose was to provide inspiration, the trip was a failure. In fact, I’d worked out the main aim was to enable my colleague- who’d done time in the Northern Ireland Office- to attend a Burns supper at Hillsborough Castle hosted by Sir Patrick Mayhew.

Whether religion should play a role in secure establishments for children has become a hot topic in England and Wales with the announcement that the Oasis Charitable Trust will operate the first Secure School – on the site of the first STC at Medway in Kent. Oasis , established by the Reverend Steve Chalke runs more than 50 academy schools and a range of other social provision. According to its website, Oasis UK is inspired and motivated by the life, teaching and example of Jesus.  Chalke has said of running the secure school  “Youth jail detention centres don't work. This is a great opportunity for us to show that a Christian ethic, a Christ-centred ethic produces a different result”.

Christianity has long been involved in prison reform of course- the penitentiary after all was a Quaker invention. And whatever the religious motivations of Oasis, the organisation’s values include a desire to treat everyone equally, respecting differences. Presumably that’s a requirement for running their academies. But secure units are not schools. 

The UN Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners, the  Nelson Mandela Rules say that “if any prisoner should object to a visit of any religious representative, his or her attitude shall be fully respected”. The UN Rules for the Protection of Juveniles Deprived of their Liberty give every juvenile the right freely to decline religious education, counselling or indoctrination. The Council of Europe's Rules say juveniles may not be compelled to practise a religion, follow a belief, attend religious services  or meetings, take part in religious practices or to accept a visit from a representative of any religion or belief. 

 The Secure School’s residents will probably not have any choice about whether they go there.  Last year, one in eight (13%) children in STCs  identified as Muslim - almost a quarter of those in Young Offender Institutions.

The experience of running academies hasn’t been without problems. Back in 2008, in one of them, “around 150 teenagers caused hundreds of pounds of damage after running through the corridors armed with bits of wood, smashing windows and trying to rip plasma television sets off walls”. Much more recently, in 2015 Ofsted criticised the  'limited leadership' in the Oasis academy chain, finding that disadvantaged pupils,particularly boys, make significantly less progress than their peers nationally.  The challenges of running a closed facility will be immeasurably greater than running a school.

It would not, however, be right to pre judge the organisation. We will apparently get to see the plans for the school in September though why the Ministry of Justice don't publish them now is a mystery. But I’m not sure that putting redemption at the heart of youth custodial system will produce any better outcomes than previous noble sentiments.

Why not ? Because the fundamental flaws inherent in bringing together troubled young people in closed institutions almost always outweigh the positive intentions of those that run them. Almost a quarter of allegations of sexual abuse in custodial institutions reported by the Independent Investigation were from secure children’s homes- generally agreed to provide the best type of child custody.

In its existing work, Oasis boasts an integrated ‘Community hub' model, which seeks to create a new sense of neighbourhood in communities that had previously been forgotten by society so that everyone, regardless of their background and starting point, can join together to overcome life’s hurdles. I’d be more comfortable if the organisation was extending this approach to deal with children in conflict with the law without depriving them of their liberty.