Figure 5: Frequency and length of stays in a Youth Justice Facility’s Secure Care unit: June – December 2019 149 150 100 Number of occurrences 59 50 39 9 0 <12 Hours 1 Day 2 Days 3 Days 7 9 10 4 Days 5–7 Days 8–10 Days 5 11–13 Days 4 3 14–16 Days 17–20 Days Figure 6: Frequency and length of stays in a Youth Justice Facility’s Secure Care unit: 2016 and 2019 compared 160 140 120 Number of occurrences 100 80 60 40 20 0 <12 Hours 2016 1 Day 2 Days 3 Days 4 Days 5–7 Days 8–10 Days 11–13 Days 14–16 Days 17–20 Days 2019 Compared to 2016, then, the use of Secure Care rooms for children and young people in the Youth Justice residence we examined more than doubled: from 109 Secure Care stays over 6 months in 2016, up to 298 in 2019. It is positive to see a significant increase in the number of shorter stays of less than 12 hours, and less than a day, hinting at a more nuanced use of Secure for urgent cases. However, 2019 has also seen a significant increase in very long stays: in 2019 the number of incidents of children and young people spending 8 days or longer in Secure increased from none to 22, including 7 stays lasting longer than 2 weeks, the time set in the Nelson Mandela Rules as prolonged, and hence prohibited, solitary confinement (for adults – the Mandela Rules prohibit the use of solitary confinement with children, defined as younger than 18). 29