Big increase in assaults
Regular readers will know that I routinely cover the quarterly prison safety statistics for the adult estate. This is not only because it is obviously important to be aware of the number of deaths, assaults and self-harm inside but also because these figures are issued promptly and are perhaps the most reliable barometer of whether life in prison is getting better or worse. However, I don’t follow the parallel statistical bulletin for the children and young people’s secure estate (CYPSE) so closely; mainly because the numbers of people in this form of custody have been falling steadily.
When I did look at this quarter’s figures (covering assaults and self-harm up to the end of 2022), I was shocked at the findings.
Main points
The headlines from this latest set of statistics which cover children and young people in Secure Children Homes (SCH), Secure Training Centres (STCs) and Youth Offender Institutions (YOIs). To put things in context, the average number of children and young people in these settings in 2022 was just 485, something which shows just how concerning these figures are:
There were 459 assault incidents Oct to Dec 2022, of which 47 were serious
The annualised rate of assault incidents per 100 children and young people per year was 384 in the 3 months October to December 2022, an increase of 11% compared to the same period last year. The number of individual children and young people involved in incidents as assailants or fighters increased 3% in the 3 months October to December 2022 compared to the same period last year, from 336 to 346.
There were 232 assault incidents on staff in this quarter, of which 23 were serious
The annualised rate of assault incidents on staff per 100 children and young people per year was 194 in the 3 months October to December 2022, an increase of 12% compared to the same period last year.
There were 719 self-harm incidents in the same quarter
The annualised rate of self-harm incidents per 100 children and young people per year was 602 in the 3 months October to December 2022, an increase of 176% compared to the same period last year.
The number of individual children and young people self-harming decreased 12% in the 3 months October to December 2022 compared to the same period last year, from 75 to 66.
If we present these figures in another way. On average a child or young person in custody would be involved in almost four assaults in the course of a year.
The demographic that I have reproduced below shows the rate of assaults from April 2014 to December 2022
Assaults
The CYPSE has seen an overall increase in the rate of assaults when compared to the quarter ending December 2021. When looking at individual sectors, there have been increases in the Young Offender Institutions (YOI) sector, decreases in the Secure Training Centre (STC) sector, and little change in the Secure Children’s Home (SCH) sector. The STC sector continues to have the highest rate of incidents of assaults when compared to the other sectors.
YOIs hold the majority of the children and young people (CYP) in the CYPSE. In the 3 months October to December 2022, the YOI assault rate was 371 per 100 CYP per year, this is an increase of 25% in comparison to the same period the previous year. The STC’s rate of assault was 572 per 100 CYP per year, this is a decrease of 36% in comparison to the same period the previous year. The SCH rate of assault incidents was the lowest of the three sectors at 361 per 100 CYP per year, which amounts to little change in comparison to the same period of the previous year.
Demographics
The following groups that have a higher rate of involvement in assaults over the previous 12 months are 10 to 14 year-olds and Muslims, with girls and Black ethnic groups being more likely to be an assailant or a fighter and boys and those of an Asian ethnic group having a higher rate of being a victim of an assault.
Self-harm
The CYPSE has seen an overall increase in the rate of self-harm when compared to the quarter ending December 2021. There has been an increase of 176% in the rate of self-harm in comparison to the 3 months October to December 2021 and an increase of 138% compared to the 3 months July to September 2022. When looking at individual sectors, there have been increases at YOIs and decreases at STC and SCHs. The rate of self-harm is typically influenced by a very smaller number of individuals self-harming multiple times.
The STC sector has the highest rate of individual CYP self-harming for the 3 months October to December 2022, at 135 per 100 CYP per year. This is a decrease of 49% in comparison to the same period in the previous year. The YOI sector has the lowest rate of individual CYP self-harming for this period where the rate is 46 per 100 CYP per year. This is an increase of 36% in comparison to the same period in the previous year. SCHs had a rate of 64 individual CYP self-harming per 100 CYP per year, a decrease of 37% when compared to the same period in the previous year.
Demographics
The following groups have a high rate of self-harm: girls, 15 year-olds, white ethnic groups and those with no religion. The rate of self-harm among girls across the whole Children and Young People Secure Estate in the 12 months ending 31st December 2022 was 9,156 incidents per 100 CYP per year, compared to 169 incidents per 100 CYP per year for boys.
This is a particularly shocking figure with an average of 92 incidents of self-harm per year for every girl, compared to 1.7 incidents of self-harm for every boy.
Thanks to Andy Aitchison for kind permission to use the header image in this post. You can see Andy’s work here
