The disciplinary system in prisons creates a pervasive sense of injustice, fuelling conflict and overcrowding, and should be overhauled, says the Howard League for Penal Reform.
The children were released as part of efforts to decongest prisons as a prevention measure in the fight against COVID-19, and are being reunited with their parents or legal guardians.
All scheduled inspection work involving visits to prisons or other places of State detention in England and Wales has been suspended up to the end of May 2020.