The “inhumane treatment” of boys at Cookham Wood Young Offender Institution (YOI) has “got worse” over the last year, the setting’s Independent Monitoring Board (IMB) has warned.
A report into conditions at the Kent YOI, which houses boys as young as 15, raises concerns over restrictions placed on children in the facility which have “heightened volatility at Cookham Wood”.
It reveals high numbers of boys on “keep apart” notices, which the IMB states “generates fearfulness and an expectation of violence amongst the boys”.
The IMB also warns that boys are still being kept in their cells for up to 22 hours a day – a concern raised in its previous 2021/22 report on the facility.
