Secure school to open in Rochester for young offenders
Oasis Restore is the first school of its kind, and will see young offenders receiving vocational training and one-to-one learning support during their imprisonment.
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00:00 No bars on the windows, no barbed wire in sight.
00:04 The Oasis Restore Secure School in Rochester is the first of its kind and is designed to
00:10 turn around the lives of some of Britain's most violent young offenders.
00:14 Funded by the government and NHS England and run by the Oasis Trust, the facility is nearly
00:21 ready to open after £48 million of renovations.
00:25 People come here most of the time because you've been involved in violent crime, sometimes
00:31 very violent crime.
00:32 You'll often come here because you feel that you've never fitted in.
00:37 It's called a secure school, but actually the first thing it is, is a home, a secure
00:42 home.
00:44 There are no cells here, there are student flats and bedrooms, there are no bars, there
00:51 are windows, there are no keys janking and steel doors.
00:56 It's set up and designed to be a therapeutic environment.
01:02 With more than 200 staff and 20 teachers, the school will provide opportunities for
01:07 dozens of young offenders to engage in vocational work.
01:11 On the premises there are music studios, workshops and even a salon to help them develop the
01:16 skills they need to leave their criminal past behind.
01:20 On the road sits Rochester's other more infamous young offenders institute, Cook & Wood, which
01:26 has seen numerous reports highlight its lack of staffing and poor conditions.
01:30 This here today, the secure school, is a very different model.
01:35 Yes, it's right that those young people who've committed serious crimes are sentenced to
01:39 custody and here they will be deprived of their liberty as part of the punishment, but
01:43 it's also important that the focus is on working with them.
01:47 They've often been excluded permanently from school, they've got underlying mental health
01:52 or substance misuse or other issues, so we work with them to tackle those, to get them
01:58 back on the straight and narrow, give them the opportunity when they're here, through
02:01 what will be a rigorous regime of teaching and learning and vocational training, to make
02:06 a positive life choice about the direction they want to go in when they come out.
02:11 Those behind the secure school hope that a new chapter in youth justice will be starting
02:16 in Kent very soon.
02:18 Oliver Leading the Sats for KMTV in Rochester.