A Secure College will be built in the East Midlands. It is proposed that the new college for young offenders will be built on land adjacent to HM YOI Glen Parva (an establishment for young adult offenders) in Leicestershire, for which the department already holds planning permission. The Secure College will serve young offenders from the Midlands and the East of England, though offenders from other areas could also be taken.
The Government admits that almost three quarters of young offenders return to crime when they are released and that young offenders spend on average 12 hours a week in education. The fortified school will provide young offenders with strong discipline, while focusing squarely on rehabilitation and education. The Secure College will have a head teacher or principal and leadership team made up of educational professionals and offender managers.
Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg said: “Criminals can’t go unpunished, but young people who’ve made mistakes and committed crime can’t simply be left on the scrap heap. If we expect them to turn their lives around, we have to put their time inside to good use.
“The Coalition has reduced the number of young people in custody. But re-offending is sky high in this country and the answer lies in education and opportunity to change. We need to make sure that time spent in custody is time well spent – an opportunity to turn lives around.
“We can do this by helping young offenders develop the skills and training they need to break the destructive cycle of crime.
“Some young offenders spend less than one school day a week in the classroom. By increasing the amount of time young offenders spend learning, we can help them to move away from crime, take responsibility for their actions, and rebuild their lives.”
About the Secure College
Described as purpose-built and designed around a fully-equipped education facility, with modern living blocks to accommodate young offenders, every young person will have an Individual Learning Plan that they will be expected to achieve while in custody and which will continue after release, the Government says.
Building work for the Secure College will begin in 2015 and it will open in 2017. It will house up to 320 young offenders aged 12-17. Legislation will shortly be introduced to create Secure Colleges as a new form of youth detention accommodation.
The Government will launch a competition for new organisations to bid to provide education within the current publicly-run Young Offender Institutions (YOIs). The new contracts will come into effect in late 2014.
