UK Looks to Spanish Model for Youth Justice Transformation
Exclusive: The UK government is preparing to implement radical reforms to its youth justice system, drawing direct inspiration from Spain's successful rehabilitation-focused custody centres. Minister for Youth Justice Jake Richards declared "we can't afford to ignore what works" following an extensive fact-finding mission to Spanish facilities.
Spanish Approach: Education Over Incarceration
Labour's ambitious plans to modernise youth prisons will emulate the Spanish system managed by Fundación Diagrama, where young offenders participate in educational activities, vocational training, sports, and creative pursuits rather than traditional punitive measures. Richards recently visited three Spanish facilities to assess transferable practices.
The Spanish custodial centres feature educators instead of conventional prison guards, who provide daily guidance and discipline within environments offering diverse activities including sports, gardening, and artistic workshops. These facilities operate as either secure centres that offenders cannot leave, or semi-open sites permitting community engagement and family visits.
Stark Contrast to Current UK System
This approach presents a dramatic departure from England's troubled youth offender institutions, which consistently fail to deliver the legal minimum of 15 weekly education hours for school-age children. Recent figures from the Howard League charity reveal children at Werrington prison in Staffordshire spent less than three hours outside their cells on average weekends last year.
During his Spanish tour, Richards inspected La Villa in Alicante and La Sangonera in Murcia (both secure centres), plus Los Pinos in Murcia (an open-regime education centre). La Villa offers occupational workshops in drawing, screen printing, and sewing, alongside employment-focused training in food handling, forklift operation, and customer service skills.
Compelling Evidence of Effectiveness
Spanish centres provide additional activities including bee-keeping, goat care, and academic lessons in mathematics and languages. Crucially, Fundación Diagrama data indicates only 16% of children completing sentences in their facilities reoffend, compared to Ministry of Justice figures showing 61.7% reoffending rates among children released from custody in England and Wales during 2024.
Richards, who met Spanish Justice Secretary Manuel Olmedo Palacios, told The Independent: "What I saw in Spain was not just a different system, but a fundamentally different way of thinking about youth justice - and it works. Rehabilitation isn't an afterthought; it is the whole point."
He emphasised: "The evidence is compelling. Smaller, education-led environments reduce reoffending and change lives. That's not being soft on crime – it is being smart on crime."
Broader Justice Reform Context
These developments form part of Labour's pledge for "the most significant reforms to youth justice in a generation," prioritising early intervention and reserving custody as an absolute last resort for children. Further detailed plans will be unveiled this Spring.
Lord John Bird, founder of the Big Issue who has visited Diagrama centres, welcomed the ministerial inspection: "I've long encouraged the government to replace our own faulty youth detention framework with their blueprint for real change. I know first-hand how good rehabilitation programmes can set up young offenders to make meaningful contributions."
Current UK Youth Custody Landscape
Recent statistics reveal an average of 420 children in custody in England and Wales at any time during the year ending March 2025 – the lowest recorded number. Approximately 44% of these children are held on remand awaiting trial.
The majority (63%) reside in young offender institutions, with 22% in secure children's homes and 15% in secure training centres. Recent years have witnessed concerning violence and self-harm levels within English youth custody, including the controversial 2025 authorisation of synthetic pepper spray use against young people under former Justice Secretary Shabana Mahmood.
Recent Labour Policy Changes
Since assuming office, Labour has already implemented significant changes, including ending the practice of housing girls in young offender institutions, instead placing them in secure schools or children's homes. The Ministry of Justice announced in February that every child caught with a knife in England and Wales will receive "targeted support" to prevent reoffending, with multidisciplinary local teams addressing health, education, and community service needs.
Justice Secretary David Lammy, announcing modernisation plans last month, noted a dramatic decline in child offending over two decades, with custody numbers falling over 85% since 2006/7. He observed that remaining children in the justice system often represent the "hardest to reach" individuals committing serious crimes, possessing "more complex needs, more complex backgrounds, and more complex obstacles facing them on the road to rehabilitation than they did previously."
Richards concluded: "We can't afford to ignore what works. I returned from Spain with a clear conviction: if we are serious about breaking the cycle of youth offending and preventing future victims, we must be bold about reform. That is exactly why I am committed to building a youth justice system fit for the future and will set out how we do that very soon."
