Teenage Prison Abuse Exposed Panorama

Undercover in a prison for teenagers.

Home to these 12-to-18-year-olds.

Custody officers controlling by menace.

Even brutality.

SHOUTING

One of the world's biggest security firms, G4S,

is paid millions to look after these young inmates,

but not like this.

'If it's around adults and authority figures'

that behave in such a manner, it's not going to fix him.

It's going to make him worse.

SCREAMING

Tonight, we ask, is G4S failing some of the most vulnerable youngsters

in the country?

Medway Secure Training Centre,

near Rochester, in Kent.

This is a prison not like other prisons.

CHEERING

It's home to around 70 boys and girls, aged 12 to 18,

who are accused or convicted of crimes from theft to murder.

I am here to investigate allegations from whistle-blowers

that teenagers are being mistreated, bullied and even abused

by custody officers.

'I have got a job with G4S, who run Medway, as a custody officer.

'The inmates here are called trainees.'

SHOUTING

'There's up to eight in each unit,

'looked after by two or three custody officers, like me.

'They are sent here specifically because they are vulnerable.

'Or at risk.

'They are also challenging.

'This is Billy, not his real name.

'He is 14 years old.'

G-U...6.

LAUGHTER

'He has been in and out of trouble for most of his life

'and is now at Medway because he attacked someone.'

'He has just arrived from a secure children's home,

'which could not cope with him.'

As much as he drives me to the brink of going,

"I just can't do it", there is still a little boy in there

who is just lonely and doesn't know what to do.

It's pretty sad, really.

'It's Medway's job to keep Billy and the other young inmates safe,

'provide high-quality education and rehabilitation.'

'Before starting work at Medway, G4S provides all new recruits

'with eight weeks of basic training.

'There are three main grades of custody officer -

'training centre assistants, like me, team leaders and, the most senior,

'duty operations managers.

'We are taught that we must keep youngsters in our care safe and that,

if there's trouble, we may have to restrain them.

'But only if absolutely necessary.'

'If we use excessive force, we can be disciplined or even prosecuted.'

'Out of the training room and in the prison, it's a different world.

'It's my 13th shift and I'm in a classroom.

'I'm waiting with a female custody officer and three inmates

'for the next class to start.

'One of them is 14-year-old Billy.

'He is shouting at Gareth, a team leader,

'who is outside in the corridor with Chris, a duty operations manager.

'Gareth comes to the door and tries to get in.

'Then, it looks like Billy might be trying to reach for

'the female officer's radio or keys.'

'I don't expect what happens next.'

'"First response" means emergency.

'He restrains Billy and I have to help.'

'Other officers arrive...

'..including Chris, the most senior officer present.

'He is the one with the red watch.'

'He has his fingers on Billy's throat.'

'During training, we were repeatedly told to always protect airways.

'Choking anyone is never allowed.'

Doctor Andrew McDonald is one of the most published experts

on how to handle challenging behaviour,

including physical restraint.

He has got his fingers right in there. I can actually

see them on his neck. He is applying pressure there.

That is really dangerous.

He is telling you he can't breathe, so let go of him.

That, to me, is an example of, actually, excessive force,

while applying restraint.

'Hurting inmates in this way is against the rules.

'It may also make these youngsters more likely to reoffend.'

'If I was a young person

'in that situation and that was done to me, I'd be pretty angry.'

Also, these people are role models, so what they are doing almost

makes it legitimate for those young people

to also be violent and aggressive.

'Billy is being forcibly taken to his cell.

'I don't know how much weight Gareth is putting on Billy's arm and wrist,

'but it looks painful.'

BILLY SHOUTS

'That is a 14-year-old, probably very traumatised, boy.

'The fact that these kids have actually'

been involved with crime - some of them have committed serious crimes -

doesn't make them any less human.

'It takes the team of custody officers nearly eight minutes

'to get Billy into his cell.'

'He acts tough...'

'..but Billy has mental health issues and behavioural difficulties.'

SOBBING

'At the end of it all, he looks broken.'

'He is scared.'

IMITATES BILLY: He can't breathe.

You know, he is crying.

You just see a child who is, literally, just being manhandled.

Excessive use of force. It was not necessary.

I know, when these children

wind you up, the way he was winding that officer up, it can be hard.

But they are there to do a job

and to help that child to rehabilitate.

And I can't see how...

they are going to do that, seeing that...

It just completely blows everything I thought out of the water.

Gareth, the team leader who began the restraint,

tells us how he's going to justify it.

Billy may have been reaching for the radio,

but he wasn't trying to grab Gareth, Billy was

trying to defend himself.

Sorry...

G4S investigate.

Gareth and two other custody officers

say the restraint was justified.

To continue our investigation, I feel

I have to stick to the story too.

Three weeks later,

Gareth is allowed back to work.

Before broadcast, we informed the authorities about our evidence.

G4S currently runs England's

three secure training centres. But later this year, it will stop

running one of them, Rainsbrook,

after the Chief Inspector of Prisons found evidence of abuse.

G4S still has the contract here at Medway.

There are some deep questions to be asked

about what was happening here,

that go beyond individual staff behaving badly.

Also, it's got really concerning echoes

of what we found at Rainsbrook Secure Training Centre.

Many of the staff I meet are OK.

A few are amazing.

But some really worry me.

Like this man - Anthony.

He was an ordinary officer like me for 18 months,

before being promoted to team leader.

I'm supposed to learn from him.

Here he is boasting openly in

the kitchen about hurting a 14-year-old child.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

It's not just Anthony.

After work at the staff area,

another team leader also seems

to revel in aggression.

It's Anthony, though,

who talks most often about hurting the inmates.

NARRATOR LAUGHS

I laugh along so he'll continue to trust me,

but it's not funny.

I'm sceptical about

these claims until I see Anthony, in particular,

with kids, with my own eyes.

He can be an effective team leader.

But he can also be a bully.

It's 14-year-old Billy, who was restrained in the classroom,

who Anthony picks on a lot.

I had reported to Anthony that Billy

hadn't cleaned his room.

It's uncomfortable to see because I've got a good relationship with

these lads. And they're still laughing and joking,

but you can tell they are uncomfortable.

I mean, essentially it is just bullying, bullying kids.

Bullying them into doing what you want.

This is another male team leader, Matt.

Billy is difficult and

sometimes attacks staff, but it's beginning to

look like he's being targeted.

Matt tells me he's looking for an

excuse to hurt Billy, and tries to enlist my help.

Billy knows what will happen if he gives

Matt that excuse.

To protect the youngsters

and staff at Medway, CCTV cameras record pictures,

but not sound, except in places like bedrooms,

classrooms and in the kitchen.

Like here, when Billy mocks Liverpool Football Club.

LAUGHTER

Then this happens...

Literally, he kind of pushed him,

shoved him down, got his thumbs into the back

of his neck, and then put one of his hands on the top of his head

and kind of dug it in.

And then he got part of his knuckle and

kind of dug it into the back of his head, like, around there.

There are no cameras here,

and Matt knows it.

His inappropriate behaviour is hidden.

I find that

harder to deal with than the violence, if I'm honest.

I mean, you think of abuse in these situations

and think it will be one member of staff

slyly digging a child when nobody else is around.

But looking at this, it is so openly obvious that

it is just a day-to-day "management" strategy for them.

Which is despicable.

It's bedtime.

Anthony is locking Billy up in his cell.

HE SHOUTS IN PAIN

It sounded like Billy was in pain, but I didn't know why.

After the late shift, at the staff area outside,

Anthony explains.

Anthony knew Billy had an injured hand.

BILLY SHOUTS IN PAIN

The other custody officers listen and apparently do nothing.

The key line of defence is a professional staff

who are prepared to say, "This isn't right, here,

I'm not happy with this, I'm prepared to do that."

It takes staff to blow the whistle.

-Right.

-And you have to ask yourself the question -

"Why did nobody say, 'Look, I'm not happy with what's going on here'?"

G4S has had the government contract

to run Medway since 1998.

Last year, it was paid more than £10 million.

My colleagues now trust me. They give me their

take on how that contract works.

G4S gets fined if it officially loses control in any way,

like trainees fighting.

Anthony tells me some staff have found a simple way around it.

That means they don't report it.

Anthony claims some duty operations managers have

pressured him to lie to avoid fines.

He tells me that once,

even when three groups of lads had a fight,

it wasn't reported, it was covered up.

BEEP!

Misreporting to avoid fines could be fraud.

I think that is a very serious allegation.

And I think that's something that needs to be specifically investigated.

And certainly, if that was done with the

knowledge of managers at G4S, then I think that

would be a very serious thing to add to...

A very serious thing for them to have to answer.

I think it would be very disturbing.

I don't know if whether that in

itself is something that needs the attention of the police.

I've now been undercover at Medway for two months.

Today is my last shift.

Yeah? Crikey! That's not the attitude!

This is Lee, not his real name.

He's 16 years old and came here from care.

Do you want to hear a joke?

He has a conviction for robbery.

The second he got up in the morning, I knew

he was out of character. And I could tell that he was

really sad. He has been down for the past couple of weeks.

BEEP!

Hey! Hey!

Hey!

BEEP!

Oi!

Earlier, Lee was rude to Anthony.

Anthony is still cross about it.

Sadly, Anthony is right.

Lee has a history of self-harm.

He is treated in his cell, put on constant monitoring,

and his room is stripped.

The last thing to be removed is a towel.

Lee doesn't want to let go of it.

-BEEP!

-BEEP!

My camera only gets a

glimpse of what happened, but I see it clearly.

Anthony came from behind, and pulled

him in a reverse choke, pulled him down onto the bed

and choked him from behind.

Really, really hard.

And he kind of slammed him onto the bed quite hard.

-Go away

-BEEP!

You know, it wasn't, it wasn't easy to be, you know, witnessing that.

A duty operations manager, called Gareth,

takes charge of the restraint.

But this boy's treatment doesn't get any better.

For over three minutes, staff physically restrain Lee.

LEE SCREAMS

BEEP!

SHOUTING AND GRUNTING

OK, stop there, he's saying,

"Bend his wrist." Yeah. And then he does bend his wrist. Right.

I mean, it's pretty obvious what he's saying, there, which is,

the more you struggle and fight, the more it's going to hurt.

It's as simple as that. Again, that's an

improper use of those kind of techniques.

LEE SCREAMS

The restraint continues.

And Lee is once again on the floor.

LEE SCREAMS

That's just an abuse of power,

and it's an abuse of methods.

It's quite horrifying.

When it's over, just like Billy,

Lee is alone in his cell.

In the staffroom, Gareth and two other

custody officers concoct a story to justify their actions.

There is no CCTV in the bedrooms,

so it will be their word against the trainees.

They tell me what to write down.

Anthony wasn't assaulted, yet I'm told to say that he was.

When I won't go along with it, they try another approach.

I won't say Lee hit Anthony,

so they decide I couldn't have seen everything,

but I did. I was at the door throughout.

He appears to think it's funny.

Anthony describes what he did to Lee, move by move.

G4S haven't responded to us about our allegations,

but claim the filming was illegal

and that the programme shouldn't be broadcast.

G4S told BBC News they

thoroughly vet their staff, and that external monitors

had not raised any concerns.

These are extremely shocking allegations and have no

part in our business or in any establishment

that looks after young people.

We were unaware of these allegations until the

Panorama... Sent them to us... And we took immediate action

to report them to the police and local authority.

G4S is paid nearly £140,000 per year, per inmate.

108 youngsters left here

between April 2012 and April 2013.

Nearly two thirds reoffended within a year.

I'd never give up hope for my son.

I can't...

I can't have

people treat him like that just because he's

in an institution for doing wrong.

To try and teach him the right way...is the only way to

get him fixed.

And if he's around adults and

authority figures that behave in such a manner,

it's not going to fix him, it's going to make him worse.

Since we informed G4S of our evidence,

they have suspended seven custody officers.

Gareth, who unnecessarily restrained Billy...

Duty operations manager Chris, who choked him...

And team leaders Matt and Anthony,

who were bullying him.

Billy has finished his sentence

and is out of Medway.

Kent Police have launched an investigation.

Children are currently not being sent here.