Section 2. Background to the report they had been kept locked up and stopped from mixing with other young people as a punishment, including time spent in a segregation unit or in their own room. This figure was highest at Keppel (70%) and lowest at Cookham Wood, Feltham and Werrington, where 54% of children had experienced some form of separation. Figure 1: The proportion of children reporting that they had been kept locked up and stopped from mixing with other young people as a punishment, including time spent in a segregation unit or in their own room.10 2.9 Conditions 2.10 We have previously highlighted poor living conditions in designated segregation units in YOIs. At Cookham Wood, we reported poor conditions in the segregation unit in 2016, 2017 and 2018 with no improvement over that time. Communal corridors remained dark, the exercise yard was stark, cells were small, often dirty and poorly ventilated, walls and windows had graffiti, and many toilets were dirty and stained. At our latest inspection, conditions on the segregation unit were still not suitable for children; it was dark and oppressive, and cells remained dirty, covered in graffiti and in need of refurbishment. In contrast, we found that conditions on the segregation unit at Wetherby, which was previously dirty with offensive graffiti, had improved by our more recent inspection; most cells were clean and reasonably furnished, and they had also been freshly painted and were free of graffiti. Regime 2.11 10 We frequently find that the regime for separated children, whether on a designated segregation unit or on a residential unit, is poor. Children often spend an excessive time locked in cells with very little to occupy them. At Cookham Wood, the daily regime for children on the Phoenix segregation unit was limited to a telephone call, 30 minutes in the open air and a shower; they had no access to gym equipment. There was a similar regime in the prison’s Bridge unit – used as a progressive alternative to the segregation unit to manage children on rule 49 – for those unlocked singly, although children could receive an additional 30 minutes ‘enrichment’ time with an officer every three days if staff were available, as well as gym once a week. At Werrington, some children on the welfare and development Survey data from Cookham Wood, Feltham, Parc, Werrington, Wetherby and Keppel inspection reports, available at <https://www.justiceinspectorates.gov.uk/hmiprisons/inspections/> accessed 9 December 2019. Separation of children in young offender institutions 15