LOCKING up children in solitary confinement in Greenfields children’s home was abusive and illegal, a damning report will reveal.

A review by the Howard League for Penal Reform is due to be released next week and will criticise Jersey’s youth custody system, reveal new allegations about the controversial ‘Grand Prix’ system at the secure unit and say that Jersey has one of the highest custody rates for children in Europe.

Figures contained in the report reveal that the custody rate is slightly higher than England and Wales and more than 100 times that in Finland. Former Health Minister Stuart Syvret invited the Howard League to the Island to carry out a review on the youth justice system. It followed concerns raised by former manager Simon Bellwood, who was sacked after criticising the practice of placing children in solitary confinement.

The report goes on to say that the history of the building has left a staff group ‘divided’ with a ‘great deal of distrust’ in some of the management, and that the organisation has ‘highly credible evidence’ of young people alleging that they were forced to sleep in cold rooms with concrete beds and ‘little human contact’ for long periods in the past.

Picture: Howard League members: Jon Fayle, former head of policy for the Youth Justice Board; Andrew Neilson, assistant director of the Howard League; and Lynne Ravenscroft, trustee. Picture by Richard Wainwright(00561083)