FAILURES in children’s prisons are widespread and worsening, according to a damning watchdog report published today.

One in eight children has complained of feeling unsafe — a more than two-fold increase on the previous year, according to HM Inspectorate of Prisons.

Its annual survey of children living in young offender institutions and secure training centres across England and Wales also found that fewer children were receiving education.

A shocking 16 per cent reported that they were not doing any education, training, work or interventions.

While girls made up a tiny minority of the children in custody — just 11 compared with 519 boys in March 2024 — they accounted for the majority of self-harm among incarcerated minors.

Front-line staff told inspectors of their concern for girls in their custody, with one saying that their young offender institution was not suitable for girls and was being used as a “dumping ground” for vulnerable young people.

Chief Inspector of Prisons Charlie Taylor said that time spent behind bars “should be an opportunity for children, many of whom have lived chaotic lives, to make up for lost time by gaining qualifications and addressing the underlying causes of their offending,” adding: “None of this is possible while a child is locked behind a cell door.”

Howard League for Penal Reform chief executive Andrea Coomber KC said that children in custody were being let down, by every measure, in a youth estate marred by violence and disarray.

“The capacity crisis in adult male prisons should not overshadow the terrible state of youth custody, which is without the same population pressures and with a considerable amount of resource by comparison to adult prisons,” she argued.

“The government must act urgently before more children are failed by this system.”