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A letter to Andrew Selous: Richard Garside responds to plans for the ‘secure colleges’ for young people

Wednesday, 22 October 2014

Following a letter published last week in the Daily Telegraph against the 'warehousing' of young people, we were one of a number of organisations invited to attend a meeting at the Ministry of Justice on 21 October 2014.

After the meeting, Richard Garside, the Centre's director wrote to Andrew Selous MP with a number of concerns. One of the points that Richard makes is that proposals will include places for up to 320 young people in the 'secure colleges', this, out of the total of about 1,000 currently held in youth custody in England and Wales. A consequence will be that many of the young people will be held far from their families and support networks. Read the letter in full.

In a piece on politics.co.uk, Ian Dunt, highlights how some government critics such as the Howard League and Liberty seem to have been 'frozen' out of the meeting.