A BAFTA-winning screenwriter whose new drama is set in a young offenders institute has said he believed keeping inmates isolated from each other for long periods allowed staff to "sit on their backsides all day and do nothing". Jimmy McGovern, writer of BBC drama Time, said he was shocked after visiting "appalling" facilities while researching the latest series. McGovern told BBC North West Tonight those in the young offenders institutes (YOIs) were "banged up 23 hours a day" as part of a keep-apart policy to stop offenders mixing.
He said he believed the policy gave officers an "excuse for being lazy". The Prison Officers' Association (POA) said McGovern was "unfair" to call officers lazy - and said keep-aparts were essential for safety due to a daily threat of serious violence. Liverpool-born McGovern focused on adult prison estates in the first two series of BBC hit Time.
But his third series, starring David Tennant and Siobhan Finneran, follows young offenders through a system which McGowan said had "got to be better". While researching for the upcoming series, which he wrote with Samuel Bailey, McGovern decided to get a behind the scenes look inside real-life YOIs. "I truly was shocked," he said of his visits to the institutions.
"It is absolutely appalling. There's young boys with enormous energy banged up 23 hours a day - not allowed out of the cells. "They call them rooms, but they're cells.
And that's because of the keep-apart system." Keep-aparts are a method of separating young offenders in a bid to cut down on violence. The separation of young people in YOIs has been a topic of debate for a number of years - with the most recent review from HM Inspectorate of Prisons finding some held in YOIs were not permitted to leave their cells at all on some days, external. Boy 'left' on cell floor mattress for 22 hours 'Being segregated in prison made me want to hurt people' Prison failing children in custody, says charity 'Young offenders spend most of time in cells' McGovern said he recognised a need for "regimentation" in YOIs, but said keep-aparts - which he believed had got worse following lockdown measures imposed during the Covid-19 pandemic - allowed officers to avoid their duties.
"It allows officers to sit on their backsides all day and do nothing," he said. "This happened before Covid, but Covid gave them the excuse to keep them banged up even more. "After Covid, they didn't want to see the kids so it became worse." When asked about the challenges faced by YOIs in regards to staffing and funding, McGovern dismissed these factors.
Extract — continue reading at the source.
