The image of a girl in a children’s prison being pinned down and stripped by male officers, not once but on two separate occasions, beggars belief (Girl at YOI Wetherby was twice stripped by male officers, watchdog says, 5 March). This is a horrific story that cannot be ignored. The “highly vulnerable” girl with complex needs, we are told by the chief inspector of prisons, was routinely self-harming, yet no plan was in place for female staff to be available.
Put bluntly, a bad situation was made worse by imprisonment, where those responsible for a teenage girl’s care put her in increased harm’s way. This is a child in need of support, not traumatisation and wholly inappropriate treatment in a prison. The idea that a vulnerable girl in distress faces force and degrading trauma as a means of “protection” should shock us to our core. It triggers flashbacks of the strip-search incident in a school with Child Q.
Agenda Alliance’s recent work has found that young women are at the highest risk of self-harm of all women in prison. Once inside, trauma is embedded into an environment designed and staffed for men and boys, while ignoring that women and girls need an entirely different approach. Take Ruby, a victim of domestic abuse before prison: “My only coping mechanism was to turn to what I had known throughout my life, ‘pain’. So that’s what I did, inflicted pain on myself.”
Let’s stop looking the other way. While men’s prisons are bursting at the seams, we must not turn a blind eye to the overlooked minority of girls and young women who are imprisoned. We have to call time on locking up vulnerable girls and young women in prisons that harm them. It’s time to invest in trauma-informed community solutions. The government knows these are vital.
Indy Cross
Chief executive, Agenda Alliance
Sonya Ruparel
Chief executive, Women in Prison