A YOUTH jail near Rugby where inmates were removed in June amid serious safety concerns will no longer be run by private company MTC after the Prisons Minister announced an end to its contract.
The contract to manage Rainsbrook Secure Training Centre (SCT) has ended by mutual agreement, Prisons Minister Victoria Atkins has confirmed.
Staff are being supported to find new jobs, and repurposing the building for alternative use is being considered.
Mrs Atkins said: “The welfare of the children in custody is our absolute priority which is why we took immediate action to remove them from Rainsbrook in the summer.
“Ending the contract means we can now refocus our resources on supporting these often vulnerable children to lead crime-free lives as adults.”
A spokesperson for MTC, which took over running Rainsbrook in 2016, said: “The impact Covid-19 had on the operations of the centre was significant, and it is disappointing that Ofsted failed to acknowledge this in their most recent report.
“There are wider challenges associated with the model and structure of STCs, which were established at the turn of the century in a different era.
“We have therefore agreed to mutually end the Rainsbrook STC contract on Friday December 31. Our primary goal now, as the centre closes, is to support our employees and partners.”
The jail, based between Dunchurch and Barby, had been holding boys and girls aged 12 to 17, but all children were moved out in June when inspectors triggered a second ‘urgent notification’ in six months, after MTC failed to address ‘serious concerns’ about unsafe conditions.
And in October the prison was downgraded to the lowest possible rating of ‘inadequate’ by Ofsted, the Care Quality Commission (CQC) and Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Prisons.
A report laid bare the ‘litany of failures’ at Rainsbrook, where poor practice was placing children and staff at risk of harm – with children telling inspectors ‘somebody is going to die in here soon’.
Work is now underway to determine the future use of the building. A Ministry of Justice spokesperson said a further announcement on this would be made ‘in due course’.
