The Prison Service is holding young offenders in adult prisons by reclassifying individual cells as young offenders' institutions, the Guardian has learned.

Under existing legislation, young offenders aged between 18 and 20 must be received into a young offenders' institution within two weeks of sentencing.
But Michael Spurr, the Prison Service's director of operations, has admitted that young offenders are being sent to adult prisons, where they are able to mix with older and more experienced offenders.