Thread by @CARE2Liberate

Secure schools have been snuck into the policing bill... Yet another sinister way in which the government would rather pump money into locking people up, in this case children, instead of dealing with systemic social issues that cause trauma in the first place #KilltheBill

Text on infographics reads - Infographic 1:
The policing bill & “secure schools”: what's going on?
What are “secure schools”?
“Secure schools” are part of the government’s planned reform of youth justice - essentially, a rebranded version of Young Offenders’ Institutions (YOIs)

The gov claims that “secure schools” will “take a child-focused & trauma-informed approach to youth custody”[1] as if incarcerating children could ever be child-focused or trauma informed! They also claim they will be building “schools with security, not prisons with education”

but as Zahra Bei wrote in 2019, “the policy of rebranding youth jails as “secure schools” provides a thinly veiled disguise for what in essence marks the start of the biggest children’s prison expansion programme in Britain.”[2]

Members of the British Association of Social Workers have called the plans “a penal approach rooted in the past”.[3]

Infographic 2:
When and where are “secure schools” being set up?
The first “secure school” will be on the site of the former Medway Secure Training Centre in Kent. It was due to open in 2020, but was delayed & will now open in 2022.

The former Medway STC was “a site of violence & abuse that prevented the young people who were held there from accessing learning and freedom” (CAPE [4]), but calls to close it completely were ignored - instead, it is being rebranded.

In 2022, academy chain Oasis, who have one of the highest rates of permanent exclusions in the country, will reopen the site as Medway Secure School.[5] Children from across the south east will be incarcerated at the new institution.

The rebranding of Medway proves how shallow this “transformation” of youth justice is - Corporate Watch report that the actual changes that have taken place on the Medway site are to cosmetic touch-ups like repainting and re-carpeting.

As Zoe Luba wrote in 2020, “Secure Schools are just one element of racial capitalism, locking up Black and other kids of color at vastly disproportionate rates.”[6]

Infographic 3:
What will the PCSC bill do?
Since the government awarded Oasis the contract to run Medway, there has been a dispute over whether running a child prison can be considered a suitable activity for a charity.[7]

The proposed Police, Crime, Sentencing & Courts bill will make it explicit that a running a child prison can be considered a “charitable activity” in law, clearing the way for Oasis to open Medway.

The change will also encourage more academy chains to apply to be “secure school” providers, establish a market for this new “school”/prison estate, using charities and the third sector as benevolent cover.

There are also some changes to youth “justice” in the PCSC bill, including:

- trialling electronic tagging for young people
- tougher sentences for young people & more discretion for judges in determining the length of sentences & community orders [8]

The changes in the bill will make the process of setting up a “secure school” smoother, as well as introducing new surveillance tactics which we know will be disproportionately used on Black and Global Majority kids.

Infographic 4:
What can I do?
- Join & support Black-led organisations working to support those excluded & marginalised by the education system, such as No More Exclusions (@NExclusions)[9]

- Kill the Bill! Medway can’t open without this change in the law - resist the PCSC bill every way you can, by joining protests and online actions from @SistersUncut

- Let people in your networks know about the PCSC bill and how it relates to education & incarcerated children

- Join & support abolitionist organisations like CAPE (Community Action on Prison Expansion, @CAPExpansion) & PSN (Prisoner Solidarity Network, @psn_ldn) who are resisting the expansion of the prison estate

- Keep an eye out for new secure schools being set up in your area over the next few years, & get ready to resist them - start building abolitionist networks wherever you are

ENDS

REFERENCES @ linktr.ee/secureschools