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Juvenile Detention

I am grateful for this opportunity to raise a number of issues about the conditions in which children are held in prison. Before I do so I want to make two observations about Government policy on prisons in general—one good and one bad. It is one of the great shames under the Labour Government that they have been unable to tackle the growing crisis in our prison system. The general prison population has risen to one of the highest in the world, which has led to two issues: prisoner self-harm and increased reoffending rates. Those are two real failures of the Labour Government. On a more positive note, however, the Government have had success in tackling the whole question of youth justice. Four or five years ago, I saw good schemes resulting from the excellent investment in youth justice; they were geared either to getting young children to avoid criminal activity or to steering them away from it at an early age. I want to focus on how children are held in prison and how we are failing them. In so many ways the Government have done a great deal to improve children's quality of life. The treatment of children in our schools, hospitals and health service and in the family context has been one of the issues that the Government have put at the heart of many of their policies to try to improve the quality of children's lives. However, it is a failure that that has not been matched by the way we look after children who have been put into custody. It being Ten o'clock, the motion for the Adjournment of the House lapsed, without Question put. Motion made, and Question proposed, That this House do now adjourn.—[Claire Ward.]