Nearly one in four boys held at Parc Prison’s juvenile unit in Bridgend report being attacked by other boys.
Meanwhile drugs and violence are rife in the adjoining adult prison.
The warnings have been made in two damning inspection reports published on Wednesday.
Use of force by staff on children in the juvenile unit, which houses boys aged 15 to 17, has trebled since the last inspection in 2014.
200 incidents
More than 200 incidents were recorded in the last six months and an average 77 disciplinary hearings are held each month, despite there being fewer than 40 children on the unit, the report from Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Prisons says.
All incidents on the children’s unit were responded to by staff from the adult prison on the site, both of which are run by G4S.
In interviews, some boys told inspectors they had been hurt during restraint in areas not covered by CCTV, including cells.
Inspectors found important areas of “safety” and “respect” had declined from “good” to “reasonably good” since they last visited in 2014 and told managers to “strive to return the establishment to its previous high performance”.
'Urgent requirements'
A raft of recommendations includes investigating victimisation and refresher training for staff inspectors.
“It is imperative that our recommendations about refresher training in child protection and knowledge about whistle blowing policy, are acted upon as a matter of urgency,” the document warns.
The report found good work included boys getting more time out of their cells than in similar units with plenty of opportunity for exercise and socialising.
But some children were let down through no fault of the prison, after release.
One child was released to an unsuitable bed and breakfast hostel, despite best efforts of Parc staff to find suitable accommodation, which led to him being unable to access education, training or work.
Addressing concerns
Michael Spurr, Chief Executive of the National Offender Management Service, said: “The Director and her team are committed to providing a safe and positive environment for young people in their care and will use the findings from this report to address areas of concern to achieve improvement.”
At the adjoining Parc Prison, inspectors highlighted violence, easy access to drugs and fear among prisoners during an unannounced visit.
More than half of the 1,600 inmates said it was “easy or very easy” to get drugs inside, 43% of prisoners told inspectors they had felt unsafe at some point during their sentence and new psychoactive substances (NPS) such as Spice have a “severely negative influence on overall safety”.
Adult inmates
Inspectors said although the jail had responded to high levels of violence and self-harm, more needed to be done to address this.
They also criticised use of CCTV to monitor some vulnerable prisoners who had been placed on constant watch as unsafe and found mental health provision was weak.
On a more positive note efforts to reduce reoffending and relationships between staff and prisoners were good.
Chief inspector Peter Clarke said: “Parc is a large and complex prison. It has benefited from strong and consistent leadership.
"Innovation is clearly encouraged and, despite the issues of NPS availability and the obviously linked violence, there is much which the management of Parc can feel justly proud of.”
'Depressing'
Mr Spurr said: “I am pleased that the Chief Inspector has recognised the good standards of practice for resettlement, including Parc’s family interventions unit.”
Frances Crook, Chief Executive of the Howard League for Penal Reform, said: “These reports raise grave concerns about safety at Parc – both in the huge adult prison, where men have died, and the smaller children’s unit, where use of force against boys has trebled.
“The high levels of violence in the adult jail are an illustration of the dangers of warehousing hundreds of men in large prisons – and it is all the more depressing that a new jail, even larger than Parc, is currently being built in North Wales.
“The report on Parc’s children’s unit chimes with recent scandals seen in secure training centres run by G4S.
“The Howard League is also aware of serious allegations of racist abuse of children at Parc, which are being investigated.”
see-http://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales-news/violence-drugs-rife-wales-biggest-11440620
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