Aug 8, 2017, BuzzFeedNews (UK): The Number Of Assaults At This Privately Run Youth Jail Doubled To More Than 80 A Month https://www.buzzfeed.com/patricksmith/the-number-of-assaults-at-this-privately-run-youth-jail?utm_term=.mjrMx36oR#.teR34eynQ Levels of violence against staff and young people at a controversial youth jail have more than doubled in the past year and the jail has no plan to improve safety, an inspector's report has said. Privately run Rainsbrook Secure Training Centre, near Rugby in Warwickshire, was the subject of a scathing report from Ofsted, which monitors youth offender units, on Tuesday. In the last report in March, covering the last six months of 2016, there were 200 violent incidents. During the first six months of 2017, Tuesday's report said, this figure reached 500. ... The centre, which currently holds 58 young people, of whom half have special education needs or learning difficulties, was taken over by MTC Novo in May 2016 in a five-year contract worth £50 million. The company is a joint venture between a US prison company that has courted controversy in America over the management of its prisons, and a British consortium of charities and other providers. The centre was previously run by G4S. The report found that: – The use of force and restraint has tripled since the last inspection to 90 incidents a month more than during the previous six months. There had been little improvement in behaviour management overall. – Overall, 47% of inmates had suffered physical abuse from other inmates, compared to 18% at other youth prisons. – Bullying is rife in the centre and is carried out via offensive graffiti. Between January and May this year, 60 complaints were made but only 28 tracking logs were opened and there were just seven full bullying reports. – Inspectors saw staff restrain and remove young people to bare rooms with no mattresses. On one occasion an inmate was injured during a restraint and the case was not referred to a health professional.
top of page
Childhood Lost
Children today are noticeably different from previous generations, and the proof is in the news coverage we see every day. This site shows you what’s happening in schools around the world. Children are increasingly disabled and chronically ill, and the education system has to accommodate them. Things we've long associated with autism, like sensory issues, repetitive behaviors, anxiety and lack of social skills, are now problems affecting mainstream students. Blame is predictably placed on bad parenting (otherwise known as trauma from home).
Addressing mental health needs is as important as academics for modern educators. This is an unrecognized disaster. The stories here are about children who can’t learn or behave like children have always been expected to. What childhood has become is a chilling portent for the future of mankind.
Anne Dachel, Media editor, Age of Autism
http://www.ageofautism.com/media/
(John Dachel, Tech. assist.)
What will happen in another 4 years? How can we go on like this? This is a national (and international) problem of monumental proportions. We have an entire new class of children who cannot be accommodated by the system: many are manifestly neurologically impaired. Meanwhile, the government and the medical profession sleep on regardless.
John Stone,
UK media editor, Age of Autism
The generation of American children born after 1990 are arguably the sickest generation in the history of our country.
Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.
It seemed to me that with rising autism prevalence, you’d also see rising autism costs to society, and it turns out, the costs are catastrophic.
They calculated that in 2015 autism cost the United States $268 billion and they projected that if autism continues at its current rate, we’re looking at one trillion dollars a year in autism costs by 2025, so within five years.
Toby Rogers, PhD, Political economist
bottom of page