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The Mubarek inquiry risks overlooking the routine bullying and violence in young offender institutions by concentrating on one extreme incident.

Prison Reform Trust research manager Kimmett Edgar said it was clear the murder of Zahid Mubarek by a racist cellmate was an "extremely unusual situation".

But he said one in three young people at Feltham had told the trust they had been assaulted in one month. "Prison officers were far less attuned to any individual assault because it was so commonplace. Responding to an extreme case is problematic. We may react to one failure rather than the whole thing."


John Pitts, Luton University professor of socio-legal studies, said the routine brutality in YOIs had not changed since the 1960s.

He said: "I'm wondering whether these kinds of institutions can be reformed or whether we have to go back to the drawing board and think of a different kind of response."