IMPRISONED children in England are typically being kept in their cells for 20 hours a day, it was revealed today.

The Ministry of Justice released the figures in response to parliamentary questions and freedom of information requests submitted by the Howard League for Penal Reform. 

The data related to three prisons in England: Werrington, Wetherby and Feltham.

Monthly averages were given for time out of cell and education provision between January 2024 and February 2025.

According to the government’s website, children at Werrington are offered 30 hours of education a week, those at Wetherby are offered 15 hours of “core education” and six hours of vocational courses, and Feltham’s education service is open “five days a week.”

But at no time did Werrington deliver eduction above the 15 hours mandated by law, and Wetherby rarely delivered more than 10 hours of education per week on average. 

At Feltham, children received only 1.5 hours education in August last year and the number failed to reach double figures in the months since. 

The data showed that there was not a single month when Werrington prison got children out of their cells for more than five hours per day on weekdays. 

At Wetherby, time out the cell on weekdays spanned from six hours and 25 minutes to three hours and 56 minutes. At weekends, it dipped as low as two hours and 19 minutes.

At Feltham, time out of cell dropped to as little as two hours and 54 minutes a day, with the highest average reaching just five hours and five minutes.

Figures from Parc in south Wales meanwhile showed that it typically provided double the hours of education given in the English jails.

Children also received more time out of their cells — between seven and nine hours on average on weekdays.

Howard League chief executive Andrea Coomber KC said: “Unlike adult prisons, prisons that hold children are not overcrowded and are relatively well resourced.

“Regimes ought to be much better, but time and again we find that they are not, with children locked up for hours on end in their cells and routinely without even the minimum amount of education that they are entitled to receive. 

“Many of the children trapped in this failing system should not be in custody at all, and certainly not in prisons like these.” 

A ministry spokesperson said: “Custody is only ever used as a last resort for children.

“Education continues to be a priority for the Youth Custody Service and we are developing tailored learning plans to better support children to turn their lives around.”