'Young offenders need rehabilitation to avoid reoffending'

Eric Allison, who spent 16 years in prison and writes about conditions inside, has said if the school system was in a similar situation as prisons today, there would be "public uproar".

Mr Allison argued that without reform and more emphasis on rehabilitation, reoffending rates would continue to increase.

He said that in young offenders' institutes "assaults are on the increase, self-harm is on the increase" and reoffending rates were "obscenely high".

Mr Allison told BBC Breakfast that currently four out of five young prisoners reoffend.