When Safety Systems Create More Harm: What the IMB Annual Report Tells Us About Children in Custody

The Independent Monitoring Board’s 2025 National Annual Report should concern anyone who cares about children.

Buried within a report on prisons, young offender institutions, and immigration detention is a stark picture of childhood in custody. It is a picture that raises uncomfortable questions about what happens when systems designed to protect children become primarily focused on managing risk, controlling behaviour and containing harm.

The report describes children living in fear of violence, spending excessive periods locked in their rooms, carrying weapons for protection, struggling to access education, experiencing delays in mental health support, and facing uncertainty about their futures. Many were isolated from their peers, while others were caught in cycles of conflict that staff struggled to manage. The result was not rehabilitation but often further disconnection, frustration, and anxiety.

One finding stands out above all others: fear.

The report states that fear of violence was widespread among children in custody. Many children chose to separate themselves from others because they felt unsafe. Some spent almost all of their time alone in their rooms as a consequence. Others carried weapons because they were frightened of being assaulted. These are not the behaviours of children who feel protected. They are the behaviours of children attempting to survive. 

Too often, systems interpret children’s behaviours as evidence of risk, criminality, or non-compliance. Yet the report repeatedly points towards behaviours that make more sense when viewed as adaptations to fear and trauma. Self-isolation, aggression, refusal to mix, carrying weapons, and disengagement from education may all be responses to environments in which children feel unsafe rather than evidence of deliberate wrongdoing.

The report also highlights how children can become trapped within systems that struggle to meet their needs. Children who were separated for safety reasons often received less education, fewer interventions, and less support than their peers. Some spent less time out of their rooms than adults in prison. Mental health support was frequently disrupted by staffing shortages, lack of suitable spaces, and restricted regimes. Children with complex needs faced lengthy delays in accessing specialist services. 

This reflects a pattern we see repeatedly across a host of systems. The child becomes the focus of intervention, while the conditions surrounding them remain largely unchanged. The presenting behaviour is managed, but the underlying drivers remain. The child is viewed as difficult, risky, or challenging, rather than as someone responding to a set of circumstances that have constrained their choices and opportunities.

The report also exposes failures beyond the custodial estate itself. Looked-after children were often not receiving the financial support they were entitled to. Local authorities routinely delayed confirming accommodation before release. Many children approached release without knowing where they would live, whether they would have education or employment opportunities, or how their futures would unfold.

These are not small administrative failures. They are examples of systems failing to provide the stability, certainty, and support that children need.

Perhaps most frustratingly, the report reveals a gap between what we know works and what children actually experience. The Youth Custody Service was described as having a good understanding of effective practice, yet there was little evidence of this consistently reaching children’s day-to-day lives. Children remained locked in rooms, separated from peers, anxious about release and fearful of violence. 

The IMB report is not just a report about custody.  It is a report about children who have often been failed long before they entered custody. If we are serious about safeguarding children, we must stop asking only what is wrong with the child and start asking what has happened around them and what systems must change.  Only then can we move from managing harm to preventing it.

To read more on the report, visit: IMB-2025-National-Annual-Report.pdf

Written by: ECO