00:00I think people will say, I do not believe this, but it's the truth still. Young boys are banged up
00:06for 23 hours a day. The big bugbear for me is the keep apart system. If you're from a certain
00:16postcode, you're not allowed to associate with people from another postcode.
00:20The third series of the BAFTA-winning hit drama Time, written by multi-award winning screenwriter Jimmy McGovern and Samuel
00:28Bailey, is set in a young offenders institution. The series explores the impact of locking up teenagers and the effects
00:36of those who look after them.
00:37It can't be cowboys and Indians, can it? I don't think anybody in it, even the guy who is the
00:45out-and-out baddie, Patsy, even he has his reasons. He's unbalanced. This boy is mentally ill. He should not
00:53be in there.
00:54For Jimmy, the starting point for this series was not just fiction, but what he saw when he visited real
01:01young offenders institutions. He says he was shocked by conditions for boys in custody.
01:06His comments come as the latest series of Time turns a spotlight on how young offenders are treated and what
01:12opportunities they have to change.
01:15Because you're in this gang, so they say, you're not allowed to associate with these other people who might be
01:20in another gang, you know, and it is ludicrous, you know.
01:24And what it allows the officers to do is to keep them banged up for 23 hours a day and
01:29not move off their backsides.
01:31That's what's going on inside these young offenders institutions.
01:36I've met very good officers, very, very good officers, but I've met some lazy ones too.
01:42Jimmy's concerns are backed by recent inspections.
01:45HMP Inspectorate of Prisons says standards across the youth estate remain generally poor,
01:50with violence, long periods behind cell doors and inadequate education still significant problems.
01:57Its latest review covering April 2025 to March 2026 found boys at Feltham and Warrington were unlocked for less than
02:05four hours a day on average.
02:07Inspectors also found separation continues to be used where establishments struggle to manage conflict.
02:12But the inspectorate says violence is a major challenge and separation can sometimes be necessary to keep children safe.
02:19As with the first series, really, and even the second, although conditions in the second series were nowhere near as
02:27bad as they were in the first series,
02:29I want people to say something must be done, you know.
02:34You can't lock people up and forget about them, you know.
02:37We're supposed to send them out better people, and we're not.
02:40We're sending them out worse, you know.
02:42You've got to have training, you've got to have education, you know.
02:46You've got to have gym, you know, you've got to have football.
02:48The three-episode series airs in the same month as measures introduced by the government to release prisoners early
02:55came into force in a bid to ease prison overcrowding.
