Editorial: Why the Cable will be shining a light on child imprisonment
Illustration: Till Lukat
Producing investigative journalism that has a real, tangible and positive impact is no easy feat.
It takes time, resources and patience – something that’s deprioritised in the industry as media outlets compete for clicks by forcing reporters to pump out multiple stories a day that barely scratch the surface of the issues underpinning their ‘content’.
The Cable has a long history of uncovering injustice. Investigations and in-depth, original reporting is what our organisation is all about, whether we’re exposing rogue landlords, cases of modern slavery, dodgy police practices, river pollution, or the failings of our city council. And this year, we’re doubling down on our efforts to make our reporting go further.
We have a series of long-term, hard-hitting investigations in the pipeline. And our journalists are working to a newly developed and ambitious impact strategy that will ensure our reporting has the best chance of making a difference for people and communities, and not just holding power to account, but forcing it to make change.
Our launch series will be a deep dive on child imprisonment and the impact of excluding our children and young people from society.
‘Imprisoning children is not inevitable’
At 10 years of age, the UK has one of the lowest ages of criminal responsibility in the world. As a local child psychologist says in an opinion piece published alongside this editorial, “Imprisoning children isn’t an inevitable fact of life. It’s a consequence of an ideology that fails to acknowledge alternatives.”
Child prisons are shrouded by obscurity. What happens in these institutions? What are the lasting impacts of this incarceration, and crucially, is it even effective?
The story of children’s experience of prison – including secure children’s homes and young offenders institutions – should be understood within its wider social context. Our reporting will explore the impact of school exclusion and disproportionately, along race and class lines, in the criminal justice system.
We want to make sure the series has an impact. We want its findings to encourage child prisons to change their policies or practices, for whistleblowers to come forward and bring more stories into the public domain, and for it to prompt wider debates on the efficacy or existence of these children’s units.
The project will likely span the entire year, but we will be sharing developments on the investigation as they happen, with insights from our sources, profiles on key players, extracts from interviews, updates on any barriers that we’re facing, and will be sharing callouts for support from our readers when we need it.
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