Youth Justice System
Young Women in Custody
Our Strategy for the Secure Estate for Children and Young People outlines our aim to separate all female children and young people from adults.
The strategy also describes our aim to build special units for certain girls and young women, for example those who are pregnant, or who are likely to give birth while in custody.
We have now succeeded in completely separating female children and young people 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 secure training centres (STCs) and secure children's homes hold both male and female young people.
Mothers in custody
Mother and baby facilities used to only exist within adult female prisons. Young mothers in custody had to be separated from their babies because no special services existed for under-18s. Being separated can be extremely damaging for both mother and baby.
However, the new young women’s unit at Rainsbrook STC, which opened 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.
Young mothers are able to leave their babies in childcare during the day, so that they can continue with their education at the on-site educational facility.
The 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.