Our Strategy for the Secure Estate for Children and Young People [opens in new window] outlines our aim to separate all female children and young people from adults.
The strategy also describes our aim to build specialist support units for certain girls and young women, for example those who are pregnant, or who are likely to give birth while in custody, as part of an ongoing programme of work.
We have now succeeded in completely separating young women from adults in custody. The YJB has commissioned four specialist units for young women within the Prison Service at Downview, Eastwood Park, New Hall and Foston Hall, while all STCs and secure children's homes hold both male and female young people.
Mothers in custody
Historically, mother and baby facilities have only existed within adult female prisons - an inappropriate environment for young women under-18. Young mothers serving custodial sentences previously faced being separated from their babies because no specialist facilities existed for under-18s. Separation can obviously be extremely damaging for both mother and baby.
However, the new young women’s unit at Rainsbrook STC, which was opened by Baroness Patricia Scotland in 2006, includes the first mother and baby unit for under-18s in the country. The three-bed unit can take both pregnant young women and mothers and babies.
When considering the options for developing the units, Prison Service accommodation was not considered because current legislation prevents young women under the age of 15 from being placed there, whereas Rainsbrook is able to take very young mothers.
The young mothers at Rainsbrook have access to a regime that is tailored to their specific educational, training and health needs, including parenting and childcare programmes, as well as links with outside agencies that can benefit them and their babies on release.
The unit offers high standards of healthcare, as well as crèche facilities, where young mothers are able to leave their babies during the day so that they can continue with their education at the on-site educational facility.
The dedicated housing unit for young women that opened at Hassockfield STC earlier in 2006 also has three bedrooms specially designed to convert into a discrete mother and baby unit if necessary.
Female health needs
In May 2005, we commissioned a health needs assessment of 17-year-old young women held in YOIs in England and Wales so that we could advise local primary care trusts on what healthcare services should be provided in the new dedicated units.
Click to download either a summary [opens in new window] or full report [opens in new window] of this research. Both were published in December 2006.