CHILDREN placed in custody at La Moye last year were held in the same cells and facilities as those used by the adult prisoners, a new report has revealed.
But the Independent Prison Monitoring Board’s latest annual report said that, while it had raised concerns about teenagers being kept in the prison, its investigations had “provided assurance as to their care and treatment” by staff.
The JEP first broke the news in May 2025 that part of La Moye had been designated as a young offenders institution by Home Affairs Minister Mary Le Hegarat “in order to meet young people’s needs at this time”.
Deputy Catherine Curtis, who chairs the Children, Education and Home Affairs scrutiny panel, told the paper she understood that there had been “so much damage done by some young people” in an incident at the Greenfields secure children’s unit “that there was no way to keep them there for a while”.
At the time, Children’s Commissioner Carmel Corrigan described the situation as “very disappointing” and warned that “the placement of children in the adult prison will inevitably arise again if the relevant law, policy and practice remains unchanged”.
Published yesterday, the Prison Monitoring Board’s report stated that: “In 2025, we were concerned that individuals under the age of 18 were placed in custody at La Moye and we had collaborative discussions with the Children’s Commissioner to voice our respective concerns.”
It continued: “Notwithstanding that prison is no place for those under the age of 18, our monitoring activities provided assurance as to their care and treatment at La Moye by prison staff, supported by outside agencies.”
Further details were provided later in the report, which noted that Jersey does not have a separate young offenders institution.
“In March 2025, a segregated section of the prison was designated as a Young Offenders Institution […] where four individuals aged between 15-17 years were held in custody,” it stated.
“This was due to the risks that they presented being accommodated at Greenfields at the time.”
The report also highlighted that the four children were held at La Moye for an aggregate of 524 days.
“The cell accommodation and facilities used by minors are the same as those used to accommodate adult prisoners,” the Prison Monitoring Board’s said, although it highlighted “positive efforts of prison staff to support these young people, under challenging conditions”.
“They were offered education and had access to the prison gym and fresh air during the week, supervised at all times.”
The government’s Youth Justice Roadmap, published last summer, revealed that ministers were considering removing the provision in the law allowing children to be remanded at La Moye.
The potential change was one of a number of actions listed in the document as part of wider efforts to enable a “restorative” youth justice system, with a focus on prevention, early intervention and rehabilitation.
In January this year, Children’s Minister Richard Vibert confirmed that there were no longer any children in custody at La Moye at the time.
