YJB to open unit for young prisoners with special needs

A new unit for 15- to 17-year-old prisoners with learning and behavioural needs will open at Wetherby Young Offender Institution, West Yorkshire, next year.
 
The Youth Justice Board has started building the 48-bed block which will give boys access to specially trained staff, education, training and health care and prepare them for entering the main YOI.
 
Wetherby governor Will Styles said: “If we are to help these young men move back into the community and be a part of everyday life, they need to develop skills and alter the way they behave and communicate. Many of the young men who come to Wetherby lack the health, social or educational skills that the rest of us take for granted. The unit will make their time with us more constructive.”
 
A 2005 study suggested that about one-third of boys at Wetherby YOI had dyslexia.
 
The unit is part of the YJB’s strategy for the secure estate for children and young people, published in 2005, which suggested developing smaller-scale units for vulnerable boys who needed intensive support.
 
 
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