By Heidi Hales & Fleur Souverein.
His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Prisons and Probation1 and the Howard League2 have highlighted that Young Offenders’ Institutions (YOIs) and Secure Training Centres (STCs) in England and Wales are struggling to keep young people safe. The new Secure School, on the STC Medway site which has been modified at significant cost, has been hampered by problems with the physical environment which delayed opening and then caused it to close temporarily (due to unsafe doors)3 in 2025. In January, the UK Parliamentary Justice Select Committee launched a new inquiry into Children and Young Adults in the Secure Estate in England and Wales (Children and Young Adults in the Secure Estate – Committees – UK Parliament). Questions included themes about types of units, work within the units, needs of minority groups and transition to adult services.
GIRAF (Group of International Researchers in Adolescent Forensics), to which Crime in Mind has awarded a grant, welcomed the review and has responded. Submitted evidence cannot be published until the review has been published, but it seems timely to reflect on some of the areas where GIRAF is beginning work.
GIRAF is an online transdisciplinary research community facilitating international comparative studies in this population. GIRAF focuses on the importance of research in building up a body of evidence for effective and acceptable interventions, including models of rehabilitative secure institutions and community alternatives to detention.
GIRAF allows for international comparison on systems of care and security across the globe. GIRAF stresses that focus on provision of safe and secure services for a few young people will always be important, but that efforts to reduce numbers ever needing such accommodation must be as much a part of the picture as efforts to improve secure justice environments. One factor in stemming the flow is further review of the exceptionally low minimum age of criminal responsibility (MACR) in England and Wales. Set at 10 years, this is a full four years below the age recommended by the UN Committee General in 2019 and two years below that in Scotland. In Scotland children below the age of 16 years may no longer be placed in a YOI – in effect, a prison. Northern Ireland retains a MACR of 10 years, but secure services are better integrated there, as is possible in smaller jurisdictions, with staff who have roles across welfare, justice and health. Therefore, there is much we can learn from the devolved nations within the UK as well as internationally.
GIRAF now has over 100 members representing more than 30 countries and with every continent except Antarctica involved. The premise is that only small numbers of young people in any one country will have dangerous behaviour disorders at a level requiring secure accommodation, and they are likely to be similar whilst responses are likely to differ, so we could learn from each other about what works best for whom. To some extent this will also apply to less serious antisocial behaviours too. The world is, in effect, providing a natural experiment in this field.
Last year Crime in Mind gave £5K from their development funds to support further development of our GIRAF infrastructure, enabling us to seek representatives from low and middle income countries to extend our scope and seek member feedback to improve our structures. We are developing a website with the remaining money. Thank you Crime in Mind.
We have already published two papers. One, led by Fleur Souverein, from the Netherlands, takes an introductory global overview of differences between countries in the scale and approach to secure placements of children and young people5 and the other led by Enys Delmage, once of the UK and now in New Zealand. This second paper is on the minimum age of criminal responsibility internationally, and how that is changing6. In coming together every month for such discussions and in writing together we have learned about the processes and practices in different countries and where we can usefully learn from others.
There are now seven active ‘baby GIRAF’ research groups, with a further two in gestation, which focus on:
- Minimum Age of Criminal Responsibility
- Supporting young people in Court
- Alternatives to Secure Care
- Definitions of secure care and decision making processes around placement
- Comparing and outcoming secure mental health wards in different jurisdictions
- Comparing number and distribution of secure beds across the secure estate in different jurisdictions.
- Assessing harmful online usage
- Developing integrated secure care for youth with complex needs
- Considering the impact of ‘joint enterprise’
Submissions of evidence to The Select Committee closed on 13th March 2026. We look forward to hearing the outcome of the Select Committee review on The Secure Estate for Young People and Young Adults in England and Wales and continued work to improve care for young people around the world, who are high risk and high need.
References
- Taylor, C. (2025) HM Chief Inspector of Prisons for England and Wales; Annual Report 2024-2025. p42. Annual-report-FINAL.pdf
- Howard League for Penal Reform (2026) New figures reveal continued failure of prisons holding children. The Howard League | New figures reveal continued failure of prisons holding children
- BBC (August 2025) Young offenders school closes over safety concerns. Young offenders centre closes over safety concerns – BBC News
- UN Committee General. 2019. “ General Comment No. 24 (2019) on Children’s Rights in the Child Justice System.” https://www.ohchr.org/en/documents/general-comments-and-recommendations/general-comment-no-24-2019-childrens-rights-child#:~:text=The%20general%20comment%20covers%20specific,other%20non%2DState%20justice%20systems.
- Souverein, F., Hales, H., Anderson, P., Argent, S.E., Bartlett, A., Blower, A., Delmage, E., Enell, S., Henriksen, A.K., Koomen, K. & Oostermeijer, S. (2025) Mental health, welfare or justice: An introductory global overview of differences between countries in the scale and approach to secure placements of children and young people. Criminal Behaviour and Mental Health 32(3): 238-247. – Mental health, welfare or justice: An introductory global overview of differences between countries in the scale and approach to secure placements of children and young people – Souverein – 2022 – Criminal Behaviour and Mental Health – Wiley Online Library
- Delmage, E., Anderson, P., Blower, A., Brown, A., Davoren, M., Enell, S., Gibson, R., Henriksen, A.K., Johns, D., Kaltiala, R., de Carvalho, M.J.L., van der Pol, T.M., Mulder, E., Oostermeijer, S., Orlando, M.S., Souverein, F., Taylor, P., Thibaut, F. & Hales, H. (2026) The Minimum Age of Criminal Responsibility Internationally – History, Systems and the Future. Criminal Behaviour and Mental Health. 36(1): 21-32. The Minimum Age of Criminal Responsibility Internationally—History, Systems and the Future – Delmage – 2026 – Criminal Behaviour and Mental Health – Wiley Online Library
Research can transform lives. We want to support discoveries about what helps people with mental disorder who have been victims of criminal behaviour, or perpetrators of criminal behaviour, and their families, and the clinicians and others who treat them and, indeed, the wider community when its members are in contact with these problems. More effective prevention is the ideal, when this is not possible, we need more effective, evidenced interventions for recovery and restoration of safety.
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