Horrific reports of how girls are treated in male prison

[coureur]

An awful story of how a vulnerable girl was stripped twice by an all male team of prison officers at Wetherby YOI. She was attempting to make ligatures from her clothing, so she will have been stripped completely naked, all her bedding taken, and put on close observation in a freezing cell.

How can we as a society still be treating girls, or indeed any children, like this? Why are girls still being sent to male YOIs where they have to spend up to 23 hours in their cells?

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2024/mar/05/girl-at-yoi-wetherby-was-twice-stripped-by-male-officers-watchdog-says?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other

I'd have thought they'd be better off in adult women's prisons than in with male youths.

@Kalevala unfortunately in their case, under-18s are not permitted in adult prisons.

That is absolutely horrific and shocking. Why on earth are these vulnerable girls in male YOIs, let alone being subjected to what sounds a lot like torture?

I definitely do not agree with any young girl being stripped naked by any male in authority but there are some inaccuracies here

She would have been changed into anti ligature clothing - not left naked

She may have been violent during the interaction
Trying to hurt others
Trying to hurt herself
Fashioned weapons from anything she could - typically a broken pen / spoon / toothbrush

I don't work in YOI anymore - I left because of the level of violence- now I'm in the adult estate in a high security prison where it is much safer for all staff

During my time working in prison I've never known of anyone being left naked. They have special clothing for at risk people. Under 18s aren't allowed in adult prisons. Furthermore I'm not sure an adult female prison would be any more safe, they're ruthless in there and there's plenty of male prison guards in female prisons, strip searches are a thing if they're at risk of harming themselves with an item or harming others or if they have contraband on their person.

Not the point but I had no idea that girls could be sent to boys YOI. 😮

This is very unusual

Girls ( and some boys ) would normally be detained for their own wellbeing in secure children's homes

I'd guess there are less than 10 girls in YOI in the whole country

They would unfortunately be eaten alive in an adult female prison

Shocking to see prison officers here minimising this utterly outrageous practice. No female should ever be forcibly stripped by male officers. There is no possible excuse; it's abuse.

It is absolutely horrific, I don't know what the answer is for these desperately damaged children though.

The clothes needed to be removed because she was making ligatures out of them. Should they have not been removed? There were no women present because she'd assaulted them earlier. Should staff have to accept repeated assaults at work?

I'm playing devil's advocate, to a point. There must be a better way, but I don't think it's as simple as saying that's dreadful make it stop.

If you read the article it tells you...

If that is directed at me I'm not a prison officer
I'm a nurse

And did say that I would never agree with any male in authority stripping a female naked
The article also states the child had assaulted a female officer earlier that day
So she may have gone to hospital for sutures / x Ray / treatment

I'm just saying that all is not black and white

From the report it sounds like she injured the only female officer on duty earlier.

It was inappropriate to strip her naked but we also don't have the full details; it indicates that she was violent toward others as well as suicidal.

It's not a male prison. It used to be but now it's for those very few young women for whom secure therapeutic units are not enough.

It's an awful situation, but not because it's a male prison. It isn't.

@Turkeyhen the article explains why the girls are there. Secure training centres have been closed down and no secure children’s homes will have these girls. Under 18s cannot be sent to an adult prison so a YOI (which until now are for boys only) was deemed the only place they could go.

Do you work at Foston / Drake /Style ?

Yes, it all sounds awful, but I agree, it’s clearly a complex situation.

Are there not enough female prison guards? Why is that? What can they actually do in situations like this if there are only men working? If they were worried she was going to take her own life what is best practice?

It's awful, but what makes you say the cell is freezing? It is dreadful, but there's no need to embellish.

It sounds such a complex situation. Ideally no girl would be in this position. Ideally MH services would have been sufficient before they struggled to this degree.

The thing is, the solutions need to be found and implemented. Until then, If it was a case of anybody being able to protect my mentally ill daughter from herself; or no one because she had already hurt the only women. I’d go with the anyone if it meant she didn’t kill herself. Sad as that is.

MH services might have helped this girl earlier, but what's really needed is a society that protects children from the kind of trauma that leads to this damage. Over 50% of the children held there are products of the care system 😪

Actually I think I'm mistaken here. Or at least the article I read that said this was wrong.

It's vanishing unlikely that the girls share any part of the building (at the same time) though.

The cold conditions was something that the prison inspectors criticized in the in the article

"The inspection also found there was a high use of pain-inducing techniques, unauthorised strip-searches and cold cells at Wetherby, which has the highest self-harm rates in England and Wales.
Charlie Taylor, the chief inspector, said: “We were deeply shocked to find adult male officers restraining and stripping an incredibly vulnerable girl not once but twice.
“While they no doubt acted to prevent serious harm, the presence of multiple men pinning her down and removing her clothes will have caused further trauma and, given how predictable the behaviour of this particular girl was, the YOI has no excuse not to have made sure that female officers were in attendance.”

No.

If they don't have enough same-sex staff to manage these vulnerable prisoners with safety and dignity, then they shouldn't be housing them there. The answer surely isn't for traumatised young women to be subjected to a violent sexual assault - which this absolutely is - every time they become suicidal. It's a disgraceful shitshow and anyone justifying it is part of the problem.

Am I reading the article correctly that there are just 7 girls imprisoned in England and since the closure of the training school they are divided over 3 different YOIs in England? - so likely Wetherby only has 2 or 3 girls but 162 males?

Good interview about this, at 20 minutes in:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m001wxpf