Cookham Wood: weapons and violence rife at young offenders institute, report reveals
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 9 ก.พ. 2025
- Children armed themselves with homemade weapons for protection at a young offenders institution in Kent where violence was rife - a damning report has revealed.
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228 makeshift weapons were found over a period of six months at Cookham Wood in Rochester. Some of the 77 boys it holds were kept in solitary confinement for days on end - two of them for more than 100 days - to "manage conflict" between the inmates.
Prison inspectors described staff as "demoralised" and "frightened", while some bosses "stayed out of sight in their offices". The detention facility was placed in emergency measures in April.
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The lack of empathy for these kids is appalling. They should be able to feel safe in this environment.
@@felixsmith5234 What 1000 years of serfdom does to a mf
as a young offender i spent 425 days in solitary down the block,never even got exercise for months on end,the prison staff kept telling me it was because of "inclement weather",my hair fell out in clumps and the abuse and brutality i suffered was on another level that you couldnt even begin to imagine.
what doesnt kill you makes you stronger
Sorry mate no sympathy. You've gotta realise there are consequences to your actions. People like you need to be sent to Afghanistan. You'd come back reformed and better for society.
im so sorry you experienced that. That made me sad and horrified to read that. I hope you are having a better life now and are safe, happy and well. Look after yourself mate.
we are all the product of our chilhood demographic,its taken a long time to put the pieces of the jigsaw together,but the Sun now shines for me and i cherish each and every day of my freedom.thank you so much for your kind words.
Except for polio.
I've been to adult jail but my family locked me in a room when i was 19 with no food or water in hot tropical weather in Bangladesh for 3 days and it effected me for many. Years afterwards even now I'm 42 and I'm still traumatised
I worked in residential care, average time workers lasted 2 years, i felt we were just waiting for them to turn 18 for them to then go to jail. We rewarded bad behaviour, nicked a phone, have £50 if u give the office one back, smash the car or windows, £1 pocket money taken from them. Kids need boundaries staff need better pay with less hours. More sanctions for non attendance in education. And of course rewards for studying.
it helps when prison officers don't get dismissing for doing their jobs to the point other staff come to the conclusion of either hiding in the wing office to keep their jobs or resign
Solitary confinement is torture.
At 17, 18 you are no longer a child. You have the ability to distinguish right from wrong.
Age is not an excuse for crime no matter what the age is.
I was in cookham wood in 2017/2018 when I was 16. They just kept me locked in my cell 24 hours a day. I didn’t come out of my cell for 2/3 weeks at a time due to being attacked for not wanting to be involved in the gang violence.
The staff were horrible bastards. On my 2nd day they beat me up and threw me in my cell because they didn’t meet my diet requirements and gave me what I couldn’t eat due to me landing in the prison after the menu sheets had been handed in by the prisoners. When I tried to complain to higher up, they laughed in my face which caused me to lash out and kick a chair. They restrained me (hurt me),
strip searched me and left me naked for around an hour. I then didn’t get out of solitary confinement (block) for 3 weeks.
Wokeness does not
solve anything So STOP
excusing violence against staff. Regardless of being young offenders, each person must take responsibility for their actions...
Its like a prison at Cookham wood
If you actually see what it's like to work in a YOI then i think your opinion will change. I actually agree with both of them in ways.
This is sad. You have people justifying their jobs by talking about nothing. Feel bad for the prison staff. People talking about things they have no experience in.
Watch for the bar of soap
This wasn't the case in the days of Borstal training, and I was an Officer then so I know. One of the problems today is the softly softly attitude of Government and management and the lack of consequences for poor behaviour.
No one is ever FORCED to use violence. Violence is always a choice. We can talk about children not having the mental tools to make better choices but we can't remove all blame from them and act like they'd be angels if not for the situation.
If the lady growing the third eye at the front of the video wants to see what happens when you take remand off the table for young offenders, she need look only to Queensland Australia where youth crime is sky rocketing and youth offenders are back on the streets within 24 hours after killing a woman in her own home, or when they stalk and stab random men in the street.
Corrections officers are not social workers and it's unreasonable to expect them to be. Their job is to provide security, and they require the tools to facilitate that mission.
It sounds as though the union are asking for youth detention centres to be reformed from a prison model into an actual youth detention model. It sounds as though the union are calling for investment into on site teachers, social workers and other members of staff to create opportunities for these kids and provide adequate interventions. That's a position I share, and curiously one the advocate and the host both likewise seems to share despite berating the union official. They all seem in agreement but they just wanted a big bad, and the advocate is determined to not make the kids accountable for their actions.
But we aren't talking about 7 - 10 year olds. We aren't talking about cuddly little toddlers. We're talking about 16 - 18 year olds on the cusp of adulthood, with the physical capacity to do real, serious harm to adults. Means to mitigate violence, including as a last resort physical force or restraint need to be adopted for corrections officers to keep everyone safe. When juvenile 1 is in the middle of stabbing or assaulting juvenile 2, there is immediate cause for physical intervention.
But corrections officers also need to be supported by social workers, psychologists, teachers and other such members of staff whom can intervene in a more peaceful way where appropriate, such as if juvenile 1 & 2 are having a screaming match.
@careyostrer6193 What on earth are you gabbing about with that strawman?
The criminal justice system in it's entirety is reformative in nature regardless of age of the convicted. A reformative criminal justice system is predilect on the idea that all persons are capable of change be they 0 or 99 years old.
I do not see some special opportunity for personal change over that of others simply because an individual is 16-18 years old. Indeed, if you think back to how you felt at such an age, your emotions, ego and fear of not being taken seriously/ fitting in with peers, along with overall lack of life experience, often prevented one in such an age range from identifying genuine opportunities and being willing to make such change. These are things which come, not just with age and life experience, but with the physical development of the brain.
At 16, one's brain is only JUST starting along it's decade long remodelling from high plasticity, high learning, to an adult mind which comprehends consequence, particularly external and long term consequence. This for example is the very reason juveniles are classified and handled differently under the law than adults.
A males testosterone peaks in this age range too, but is unstable. So you have an almost adult body, controlled by a child brain that is only just starting to comprehend consequence, with high drivers on peer group social status, endorphin reward, high tolerance to risk (that feeling of being invisible) and a randomly fluctuating hormonal cocktail that can create violence out of nowhere. That is why the union representative is talking about 16-18 year olds being the most dangerous group in the entire custodial system.
That isn't to say they are without hope or that they can not change. Again, the system is reformative, change is the entire point. What it is to say, is the reality. These are violent offenders, whom continue their violence whilst in custody and should be recognised and treated as such. They absolutely need corrections officers capable of deploying reasonable force where necessary to control the situation. The mere possibility of such force as an immediate consequence is often enough to prevent violence and to keep things calmer.
Youth facilities are expensive to run, much more so than adult facilities. Even more expensive still if they're run right. That goes for any youth facility, not just a detention centres. If you want the centre run well, you have to be willing to spend your tax dollars on it.
@careyostrer6193 If you're going to continue to converse with me please use paragraphs for readability or I will simply dismiss you.
There is no aggression, you are reading something into my words that is simply not there. This is your bias manifesting in the way you introduce tone to my words.
That the criminal justice system is reformative is not a view nor matter of opinion. It is an objective fact with regards it's legislative design, intent and practice of the system.
We are not talking about yankville, we are talking about the UK. They differ from one another substantively and fundamentally. Yankville is as irrelevant to this discussion, as they are generally to geopolitics. That is to say, completely. If you are incapable of remaining on topic, or speaking of the UK criminal justice system from experience or deep understanding then you are in the wrong conversation, and are wasting both of our time.
The neurodevelopmental and neurochemical changes from an adolescent brain to that of an adult starting from 16, and continuing until 25/26 are likewise not a view nor opinion. They are objective, indisputable medical fact.
I have not made any assumption. Did I claim you said either of those statements? No. I was merely attempting to bring your strawman back into relevance with the OP. You in fact repeatedly talk about the "cost to run cockham wood" as if it's excessive. My point was not only is it not excessive, it is underfunded for what it is. It needs a budget 5-6 times larger to be run appropriately.
The colour of ones skin is entirely irrelevant to the system and this discussion, Justicia is blind for a reason. What matters is their actions, and only their actions. But before you have a song and dance, white juvenile offenders make up 50.6% of detentions, and black juvenile offenders make up just 27.8% according to the latest official government youth justice statistics. Blacks are by far the lowest proportional ethnic cohort in the youth justice statistics. There are more asian youth in detention than blacks. So let's stop the silly race card nonsense because to be honest that's the racist and desperate meanderings of someone without a genuine argument. It's intellectually bankrupt and shameful.
We are not talking about juveniles whom have simply shop lifted or committed a non violent simple offence. We are talking about violent major offences such as armed robbery, aggravated home invasions, grievous bodily harm, sexual assault and manslaughter. These are serious violent offenders whom need to be treated as such.
All inmates, regardless of age, have a sob story. Every offender can point to something in their lives that didn't go well and try to blame their actions on that. The kiddie fiddler who wants to talk about their traumatic childhood, or the serial killer who wants to say their mothet/father/sibling/first love/whatever didn't hug them enough or spend time with them the right way. Every offender, right up and down the scale of offences can point to something. Even those who created the trauma for the youth offenders in question can point to trauma in their own past.
Whilst these past experiences almost certainly contributed to their crimes, our behaviour is determinist not fatalist. That is, whilst the past informs whom we are, we retain agency over ourselves, our behaviour and our actions. Unfortunately around 1/3 of children will experience serious trauma through childhood, however the vast majority will not go on to commit violent major offences. Accountability is essential, it's how you stop the cycle of trauma.
Violence is a choice, always. That isn't an opinion or a "view", that's behavioural science. Another one of those objective facts.
The introduction of social workers, psychologists, teachers and other similar staff to the system was discussed both by the union rep in this video and in both of my previous comments including the OP. That is as much discussion on the trauma these children have experienced as needs to be had. It is then up to these professionals to implement appropriate case by case interventions during detention.
What you have utterly failed to consider anywhere is their victims. You want to create strawman talking about the passed trauma of the offenders but refuse to talk about the real and present trauma of their victims. That's victims not "victims". They deserve to feel as though they matter. That their attacker is being held accountable and the same won't happen to someone else. The community at large deserve to feel safe both on the street and in their homes. None of that happens when we're preoccupied with the feelings of those causing harm to others.
One only needs to look to California, Queensland, Ontario to see the consequences of your way of thinking being taken seriously. California's economy is collapsing, Queensland is descending into vigilante justice and people in Ontario are afraid in their homes.
P.S. It is a amalgam of western culture that we say tax dollars and not tax pounds nor tax euros despite the currency not being in use domestically.
@careyostrer6193 cya 🙋♂️
The kids are victims. Release them and provide the with mental support. Otherwise this prison is just nurturing future gang members.
😂. They already gangsters.
@@pacman7959 They are kids, unless you have any social or educational studies, you just have a poor opinion and stop wasting everyone's time.
‘On the frontline’. So are the going to war with these kids? Nope, it’s about fighting them as cheapest for the business, rehabilitation is long term expense.
prison staff by and large dont care,rather than patrol the wing,they just sit in the office doing the Sun crossword.
They've comitted a crime so theres only one place for them
16 to 18 year old's children???, it was only a few years ago they raised the age of Infantry Combat troops being deployed into combat zones in the British Army from 16 to 18. You can join the British Army at 16, because at 16 you are no longer a child.
@careyostrer6193 Very, Ideal age is 18 to 25, young men are more brash in combat, max age you can join the Infantry is 32.
Illegal under European law.
If you want peace, prepare for war😂
Start putting the parents in jail at the first sign a kid's going off the rails, slam adults that exploit the kids.
And how does that help anythjng, let alone the kids, when the parents are in prison and the kids have no one to look after them? What kind of society do you think that actually makes in a practical sense?
I don't think you've actually thought through your virtue signalling brain fart.
Then u should also put the government in jail as parent also interfere in parenting .but Parents should be penalised for their kid.
@@tjmarx Alright I agree it needs some refining but you get what I mean, hold the parents responsible when their 9 year old is showing signs of anti-social behaviour. Not the one off incident but a pattern of offending, slam the parents.
Also, some people really should be stopped from breeding altogether.
No!! The "kids" need to go "propa" prison.. It will either make them..or break them... And before you all think I'm heartless... I've been there done that! First time in pen. You either use that to go forward! Or you continue
POA is a weak union where when comes to staff going through disciplines where given wrong misconduct charges, time lines not followed, procedures/ policies not followed and still get dismissed. where when a prisoner uses his foot to obstruct a cell door with his foot the hearing manager classes it as a barricade situation even though the policy states it isn't a barricade situation and when a prisoner assaults a prison officer the staff member uses forces by giving a single kick back to defend themselves the prison officer looses their job. where the poa fail to represent prison officers and Mark knows this.
Wat do u think prison is a violent environment especially juvenile also the head of the officers union has a track reckon of mismanaging corruption allegations. Amongst officers vs juvenile offenders the reality he has a lack of insight which could be his lack of understanding the full picture and he sways from the messages of the juvenile prison system which is meant to rehabilitate not punish and if you have a person such as baldie in charge nothing will change
That THING from the POA needs taking to the caves in Cheddar Gorge & manueovred into the scenario from 127 Hours.
🙄
But no rape?
endless bumming fo sho
Y'all need 2nd Amendment
Yeah works a charm over there, your kids dont have to go to prison to face violence they can get shot in school.
😂 yeh thats doing wonders for yall
He’s 100% satire
Google "how many children where shot in the usa last year in school".
Who is the Daddy ?
Societies garbage im afraid. Cheaper long term to 🪦. otherwise they’ll be a societal burden for years