Introduction: Young people serving long custodial sentences endure prolonged confinement during a critical period of development, yet their perspectives remain relatively underrepresented in research on long-term imprisonment. Existing literature has highlighted the losses, deprivations and developmental disruption associated with custody, but less is known about how young people experience and make sense of serving lengthy sentences in Secure Children’s Homes (SCHs). This study therefore aimed to explore the lived experiences of young people serving long custodial sentences in SCHs, placing their voices at the centre of the research.
Method: A creative qualitative methodology was employed, combining an object-elicitation task with semi-structured interviews. Eight young people aged 15 to 18, serving custodial sentences of between six and twenty-one years across two SCHs in England, participated. Young people selected objects that represented aspects of their experience, which were used to facilitate participant-led interviews. Data were analysed using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA).
Results: One overarching Group Experiential Theme (GET), ‘You’ve got to get on with it’: Navigating a Liveable Life on a Long Sentence, captured participants’ experiences of learning to live within the realities of prolonged custody. Four interconnected GETs were also established: Doing Time and Losing Time, Positioning Experience Through Comparison, Holding on Beyond the Walls and Making the Emotional Weight Bearable. Together, the GETs suggest that adaptation was understood as an ongoing process of constructing a liveable life alongside the realities of a long sentence, whilst young people continued to grow and develop despite the disruption and loss associated with growing up in custody.
Discussion: The findings provide a more complex and nuanced understanding of long-term custody than one of developmental loss or psychological adjustment alone. Young people experienced significant restrictions, loss and uncertainty, yet continued to adapt, develop and find meaning within the custodial environment. The findings highlight the importance of understanding long-term custody as both a developmental and psychological context, in which the environment can constrain or support young people’s capacity to maintain wellbeing, meaningful relationships, development and a sense of purpose. Overall, the study offers a humanising account of young people serving long sentences, showing that they are not simply enduring time in custody but continuing to live, grow, and build meaningful lives within it.
