GOVERNMENT plans to warehouse hundreds of young offenders in secure colleges dubbed “super prisons” were condemned yesterday by unions and Labour.

The proposed secure colleges would cater for hundreds of young people in detention, replacing existing young offenders’ institutions, secure training centres and children’s homes.

Plans are already under way for an initial college which would hold 320 boys and girls aged 12-18 at an estimated cost of £85m.

But the University and College Union (UCU), which represents prison education staff, and the National Union of Teachers (NUT) criticised the lack of details in the proposal.

“Putting large numbers of vulnerable young offenders in together would be bad for young people, bad for justice and bad for taxpayers,” said UCU general secretary Sally Hunt.

“We are deeply concerned about the effect that this warehousing approach will have on education, which is key to reducing reoffending.”

NUT general secretary Christine Blower added that questions had been raised about the colleges as “many of these young people have complex social and emotional needs.”

Meanwhile, a report published yesterday by the Joint Committee on Human Rights has raised concerns over the proposed use of restraint in super prisons, suggesting they may breach the UN Convention on the Rights of Children.

Under the proposals staff would be able to use force to restrain inmates for “the purposes of good order and discipline.”

But a 2008 Court of Appeal ruling banned the use of force in any circumstances other than to protect the child or others from harm after it was linked to the deaths and injury of several children in custody.