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The government and prison service needs to address deficits in the regimes for 18 to 20-year-olds, according to the chief inspector of prisons this week, writes Clare Jerrom.

Anne Owers has urged the government to provide additional resources to allow establishments to improve education, training and purposeful activity for this group of young offenders.

An inspection report of Onley young offenders’ institution in Warwickshire highlights unacceptable deficits in education and training. Education targets were set too high for 70 per cent of the prison population, and unsentenced children were locked up for 20 hours a day.

There was the need for proactive relationships between staff and young people, an anti-bullying strategy, and there were also shortfalls in sentence planning and resettlement work for over 18s.

The inspectors did, however, note areas of good practice in healthcare and drugs work.

There were also good initiatives at Hindley young offenders’ institution near Wigan, according to an inspection report, particularly in suicide prevention, drugs strategy, sentence planning and joint work with the police service to monitor and act on racial incidents.

But insufficient purposeful activity for young men was highlighted. Some spent 18 hours a day in their cells, and had just 15 hours per week education, work and training.

Resettlement work was inadequate. There was one excellent programme that reached just one fifth of the prisoners. But 25 per cent of prisoners expected to be homeless on release, yet nearly half had received no help to find housing. Over two thirds said no one had spoken to them about jobs or education.

Owers said: "The gaps we identify at Hindley cannot be bridged by the prison on its own. They reflect the impoverishment of regimes for 18 to 21-year-olds in our prisons as a whole."

"Without more investment in education, employment, training and resettlement, these young people will remain at high risk of reoffending on release," she added. "This is a matter that urgently needs to be addressed by the government and the prison service."

Onley was inspected between 9 and 13 July last year, Hindley was carried out in June last year.

The reports are available from www.homeoffice.gov.uk/hmipris/hmipris.htm